Manufacturing Growth Slows in December

Source: Institute for Supply Management

Manufacturing expanded for the 19th straight month in December, albeit at a softer pace than in the previous month.

• The December Manufacturing PMI stood at 58.7%, down by 2.4 percentage points from November 61.1%.
• The biggest decline was seen in prices, which fell by 14.2 percentage points to 68.2% from 82.4%.
• Drops were also seen in supplier deliveries, production, new orders, and new export orders.
• The biggest jump was recorded in customers’ inventories, up by 6.6 percentage points to 31.7 from 25.1, followed by employment, order backlogs, and imports.
• All of the six biggest manufacturing industries registered moderate to strong growth in the month, with demand and consumption both up.
• Firms also indicated improvement in hiring activities, which was offset by backfilling needed to address employee turnover.