Nigeria’s Manufacturing PMI eases to 56.5 in May CBN
Growth in Nigeria’s manufacturing sector moderated to 56.5 in May down from 56.9 in April, the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) latest Purchasing Manufacturers’ Index (PMI) report published yesterday shows.
Despite easing, the reading indicated an expansion in the manufacturing sector for the fourteenth consecutive month. According to the CBN: “a composite PMI above 50 points indicates that the manufacturing/non-manufacturing economy is generally expanding, 50 points indicates no change and below 50 points indicates that it is generally contracting.”
The CBN report, however, showed that the May PMI grew at a slower rate when compared with the index in the previous month. “Of the 14 subsectors surveyed, 10 reported growth in the review month in the following order: petroleum and coal products; paper products; plastics and rubber products; electrical equipment; food, beverage and tobacco products; cement; chemical and pharmaceutical products; primary metal; printing and related support activities; and textile, apparel, leather and footwear.
The transportation equipment; fabricated metal products; nonmetallic mineral products; and furniture and related products subsectors declined in the review month,” the CBN stated. Also, the report showed that at 58.8 points, the production level index for the manufacturing sector grew for the fifteenth consecutive month in May. The index indicated a faster growth in the current month, when compared to its level in the preceding month.
Similarly, at 54.9 points, the new orders index grew for the fourteenth consecutive month, indicating increase in new orders in May.
Other indexes such as the manufacturing supplier delivery time index and the employment level index grew at 57.5 points and 55.2 points, respectively. Significantly, even though the manufacturing sector raw materials inventories index grew for the fourteenth consecutive month in May, the report showed that at 58.7 points, the index grew at a slower rate when compared to its level in the previous month despite the availability of foreign exchange in the system.
According to the report, a slowdown in expansion was also recorded in the CBN’s PMI for the non-manufacturing sector as the index stood at 57.3 points in May 2018 compared with 57.5 points in the previous month. This, however, meant that the non-manufacturing PMI expanded for the twelfth consecutive month.
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