Sri Lanka Purchasing Managers’ Index - October 2018

All the sub-indices of PMI Manufacturing recorded values above the neutral 50.0 threshold signalling an overall expansion in October compared to September. The improvement observed in manufacturing activities in October was mainly driven by the improvement in new orders and production, especially in manufacturing of food and beverages activities, led by the positive outlook with the seasonal demand. Even though the employment in the manufacturing of food and beverages activities has improved with seasonal trend, overall employment slowed down. This was mainly evident in manufacturing of textiles, wearing apparels, leather and related activities due to difficulties to find employees in the market.

Meanwhile, Stock of purchases indicates an expansion with the stock holding in manufacturing of furniture activities in preparation for the upcoming season. Lengthening of suppliers’ delivery time usually indicates that economy is booming with expanding activities in the short run. However, in this instance, suppliers’ delivery time lengthened at the same rate observed in the previous month which is mainly driven by scarcity of raw materials and the increase of the lead-time purposely with the expectation of rupee stabilization thereby controlling further increase in raw material prices.

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Published Date: 

Thursday, November 15, 2018