New Zealand Manufacturing Index Improves In November - BusinessNZ

(RTTNews) - The manufacturing sector in New Zealand continued to contract in November, albeit at a slower rate, the latest survey from BusinessNZ revealed on Friday with a score of 46.7.

That's up from 42.9 in October, although it remains beneath the boom-or-bust line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction.

Among the individual components, production (43.6), employment (47.9), new orders (47.7) and deliveries (48.0) all contracted, while finished tocks (50.7) expanded.

"At the heart of the recent poor run in the PMI has been its production index. While this improved a bit in November, it was, at 43.6, almost 10 index points south of its long-term average. That's a big undershoot, in historical context," BNZ Senior Economist, Craig Ebert said.