Daily News

View All News

Manufacturing indexes for US and Canada decelerate

March 02, 2015

The Institute for Supply Management’s purchasing managers’ index for US manufacturing decelerated to a reading of 52.9 in February from January’s reading of 53.5. February’s reading is the lowest in the last 12 months, but any reading above 50 typically indicates growth.

The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists was 53.

The employment portion of the ISM’s manufacturing index decreased to a reading of 51.4 from 54.1 in January.

And in Canada, the Royal Bank of Canada’s Canadian manufacturing purchasing managers’ index decelerated to a reading of 48.7 in February, down from January’s reading of 51.0 and the lowest level since the survey began in October 2010. The February index was also below the neutral 50.0 threshold for the first time since April 2013. Additionally, staffing levels have now declined for two consecutive months, and the rate of job shedding accelerated to its fastest pace in almost four-and-a-half years of data collection.

The RBC PMI is a monthly survey conducted in association with Markit, a financial information services company, and the Supply Chain Management Association. It is based on data compiled from monthly replies to questionnaires sent to purchasing executives in more than 400 industrial companies.