The Manufacturing Sector PMI, following the seasonal pattern, recorded 41.8 in April which is a decrease of 24.7 index points compared to March 2017. This indicates that the manufacturing activities contracted in April 2017, which is largely attributable to the decrease in the Production and New Orders sub-indices, following the significant increases observed in PMI for the month of March 2017. As highlighted by the survey respondents the new year holidays in April have also contributed to this seasonal decline in manufacturing activities. Further, all the sub-indices of PMI declined compared to the previous month. Moreover, all the sub-indices of PMI apart from Suppliers’ Delivery Time sub-index dropped below the neutral 50.0 threshold in April 2017. However, the expectation for activities indicates an improvement for the next three months.