New Zealand Manufacturing Index Improves To 51.4 - BusinessNZ

(RTTNews) - The manufacturing sector in New Zealand continued to expand in November, and at a faster pace, the latest survey from BusinessNZ revealed on Friday with a Performance of Manufacturing Index score of 51.4.

That's up from 51.2 in October, and it moves further above the boom-or-bust line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction.

Among the individual components, production (52.8), employment (52.4), new orders (51.9) and finished stocks (50.4) expanded, while deliveries (49) were in contraction.

"The PMI has seemingly settled above the breakeven 50 mark. Nonetheless, we want to see more upbeat outturns from this survey and the Performance of Services Index to provide us with some comfort that the expected lift in Q3 GDP can be sustained into Q4," BNZ Senior Economist Doug Steel said.