- Prior 46.5
It's an improvement as output and new orders fall at a slower pace but it still points to contraction in Spain's manufacturing sector towards the end of Q3. HCOB notes that:
“Spanish manufacturing sector output took another dip in September, but it's not dropping as fast this time. It is a nod to companies’ resilience, especially with their main export partners - France, Germany, and Italy - hitting some bumps.
"Demand for manufactured goods from Spain is still shrinking, but the jump in the new orders index looks like the drop in demand is moderating. The PMI numbers show this development is very much driven by orders from abroad. In this environment the decrease in backlog of work was little moved. All this fits with our perception that the global manufacturing downturn is about to find a bottom.
"Although the downturn has moderated somewhat it remains rather broad based. Intermediate goods took the biggest hit, while consumer goods production returned to modest growth. Investment goods output, however, remains in contractionary territory.
"Plugging in the fresh PMI figures into our model, our GDP nowcast delivers a somewhat rosier picture for the whole economy. An overall stagnation of GDP in the third quarter seems to be the most probable outcome with the data published so far. This contrasts with the moderate slump which we envisioned.
"We are seeing another drop in input prices, but it is a somewhat gentler slope this time around. This seems to be due to the spike in oil prices over the past few weeks. For companies it is a good sign that output prices were not cut too drastically, protecting their profit margins.”
