Manufacturing spurs steady growth
NCB Stockbrokers Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) for August shows the sector is still growing, though the reading, at 54.7, was down slightly on July’s figure. NCB senior economist Eunan King said although the month did see a small decline, overall, the manufacturing orders were holding up well and there was a buoyancy in orders from the US.
He said this was encouraging given doubts about the strength of the US economy in recent months. “Manufacturing production rose for the twelfth consecutive month in August, with the rate of expansion easing only marginally from the previous month’s strong pace. As well as processing new orders, manufacturers were again able to redirect any spare capacity to help clear existing orders and, as a result, backlogs of work declined modestly for the fifth month running,” the report said. The report said manufacturers added to the size of their workforces for the seventh month in a row in August, although the rate of growth of employment remained only slight.
