Pic: Adobe Stock
Manufacturing production increased at the quickest pace in May since December 2021. Output has now expanded for five consecutive months. Growth accelerated to a near three-year high in the intermediate goods industry. Consumer goods remained the best performing category overall despite seeing growth ease slightly over the month.
The latest expansion of worldwide manufacturing output was underpinned by rising intakes of new business, completion of backlogs of work and improved international trade flows, as per S&P Global.
New business rose for the fourth month running and to the greatest extent since March 2022. Concurrent growth was registered across the consumer and intermediate goods industries for the first time in over two years. Levels of outstanding business were reduced for the twenty-third successive month, albeit at one of the weakest rates during that sequence.
Recent months have seen a tentative return to growth in new export business. International trade volumes rose for the second month running in May, following a prolonged sequence of contraction. Increase was seen in the consumer goods sector, which more than offset a slight decrease in the intermediate goods category. China, the US, India and Brazil were among the larger nations to benefit from improved global trade flows.
The recent improvement in current conditions filtered through to the labour market and business confidence. May saw job creation recorded for the second time in the past three months and, although only marginal, the rate of growth was the best since August 2023. The US, Japan, India and Brazil were some of the nations to raise staffing, while cuts were signalled in China, the euro area and UK (among others). Business optimism in the global manufacturing sector rose from April's four-month low, to one of its highest levels during the past year. Developed nations were (on average) more optimistic about the future than emerging markets.
Price pressures continued to rise in May, with rates of inflation accelerating for both input costs (15-month high) and output charges (14-month high). For both price measures, rates of increase were (on average) steeper in developed nations compared to emerging markets.
“The May global manufacturing output PMI rose 1.2 points to 52.6 in May, its highest level since December 2021. Gains in the new orders and employment PMIs point to an upturn moving ahead. The base of the revival is broadening, with the survey improving across most of the major economies," said Bennett Parrish, global economist at JP Morgan.
Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DP)