Purchasing Managers' Indices for both Manufacturing and Services activities contracted in October 2020.
Manufacturing activities indicate subdued performance in October 2020 due to adverse impacts of the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic erupted in the country in early October. Accordingly, manufacturing PMI declined to 40.3 in October 2020 with a significant decline in Production, New Orders, Employment, and Stock of Purchases sub-indices, particularly in the manufacturing of wearing apparel and food & beverages sectors.
Services sector PMI declined to 41.8 in October 2020 reflecting the adverse impact of the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic on the services sector of the economy, which was gradually recovering during the past four months from the impact of first wave. This contraction was underpinned by the declines observed in all sub-indices of services PMI except for the index of backlogs of work.