The Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for manufacturing increased to 56.4 in March from 55.3 in February, indicating that the manufacturing sector concluded fiscal 2022–23 at its peak. Unfortunately, little progress was made on the job front, per the S&P Global monthly survey, which was released on Monday.
Pollyanna De Lima, Economics Associate Director, S&P Global Market Intelligence, commented on the survey’s findings and said that businesses had reported increased capacity utilization, including among their suppliers. In terms of supply chains, quicker delivery times and lessening pricing pressure were the results of enhanced raw material availability. After September 2020, the rate of increase in input costs in March was the lowest overall.
“Firms purchased more raw materials and semi-finished goods in an effort to gain as much as possible from this slowdown in inflation. In almost 18 years of data gathering, this resulted in one of the biggest rises in input inventories. However optimistic about upcoming orders, businesses questioned if inflation would continue to decline. Such concerns limited excitement regarding output projections,” according to De Lima.
The survey revealed relatively little strain on the capacity of the industry, as the volume of unfinished business increased somewhat. As a result, “producers maintained payroll numbers in March mostly unchanged.
