Nigeria’s Manufacturing Index Declines in March

The Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) improved marginally to 45.9 per cent in March 2016, compared to 45.5 per cent in the preceding month.
This implied that the manufacturing sector declined at a slower rate during the review period.

 

The PMI report for March 2016 released at the weekend revealed that of the 16 manufacturing sub-sectors, 12 reported decline in the review month in the following order:

GMD, Mr. Timothy Oguntayo- Skye Bank seeks more Investment in Manufacturing

The Group Managing Director, Skye Bank Plc, Mr. Timothy Oguntayo, has called for massive investment in manufacturing, agriculture and extractive industries to speed up the process of diversifying the nation’s economy.

He said this at a ‘Roundtable session on the manufacturing outlook for 2016’ organised by BAA Associates in Lagos.

The lender, in a statement on Monday, quoted Oguntayo, who was a lead panelist at the event, as saying the three sectors were critical for the success of the economic diversification agenda of the current government in view of the dwindling oil prices, low Gross Domestic Product growth, and rising unemployment.

Growth at Risk as Factories Stuck in Rut

South African’s manufacturing sector is stuck in a quagmire and will drag economic growth even lower.
Key indicator Barclays purchasing managers’ index (PMI) on Monday showed a sixth consecutive drop last month.
As inventories continue to outstrip new sales orders, manufacturing production will be muted; this points to weak economic growth and more job losses in the sector.
Given that manufacturing is the fourth biggest contributor to gross domestic product, this bodes ill for the economy.

 

At 43.5, the PMI was more than five index points below last year’s average. The 50 point is neutral and anything below that indicates contraction.
The drop in SA’s and China’s PMI pushed the rand over the R16/$ barrier after it broke through the psychologically key level at the weekend although it recovered late in the day. The JSE and Shanghai Composite both closed down on the news.
China’s official PMI slipped to 49.4 from 49.7. A private survey, the Caixin-Markit China Manufacturing PMI, underscored the trend by showing factory activity shrinking for an 11th month. The PMI of SA’s other leading trade partner — the eurozone – also contracted, although it remained above the 50 mark.

World manufacturing output grew 2.7% in third quarter —UNIDO

The United Nations Industrial development Organization (UNIDO) has released its international industrial statistical database on world manufacturing output for the third quarter of 2015, saying it grew by 2.7 per cent.

 

In Africa manufacturing output rose by just 0.1 per cent.

In the report, Shyam Upadhyaya, UNIDO Chief Statistician, said the organisation regularly releases the statistics on current growth trends of global manufacturing at country and regional level, adding that for the first time in recent years, the growth trend in industrialized economies was upward compared to declining trend in developing and emerging industrial economies.