The Manufacturing Sector PMI recorded 55.6 index points in February from 51.7 index points in January 2018. This indicates that the Manufacturing activities expanded at a higher rate in February compared to January 2018 after the seasonal slowdown observed during the previous month. This was mainly driven by the expansion in the New Orders sub-index. The Production sub-index also increased with the increase in new orders. Nevertheless, this increase was relatively low compared to that of new orders due to lesser number of working days in February. Further, Stock of Purchases sub-index also expanded during the month while Employment sub-index expanded marginally. Meanwhile, the Suppliers’ Delivery Time sub-index lengthened at a higher rate compared to previous month. Overall, all the sub-indices of PMI recorded values above the neutral 50.0 threshold signalling an overall expansion in manufacturing activities during the month. Moreover, The Expectation for activities indicates an improvement for the next three months.
