September’s reading brought the BCR Romania Manufacturing PMI index to 49.8, which represents a 15-month high and comes after the 49.3 recorded in the previous month. The value is only marginally below the neutral mark of 50, showing only a marginal contraction reported in monthly terms, according to Erste Group.<\/p>\n
Romania’s industrial production increased by 4% year-on-year in the May-July period, according to the latest available data, with the core manufacturing sector advancing 4.5%. The improvement follows a gradual strengthening of Romania’s Purchasing Managers’ Index, which approached the neutral 50-point level in August, indicating stabilisation in manufacturing activity.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The further improvement in the PMI in September supports a positive trend in the country’s industrial sector, which has undergone a negative trend since the war began in Ukraine.<\/p>\n
All components of the PMI index made small, positive or negative, contributions in September.<\/p>\n
The Output component improved once again this month but continues to remain in the negative territory, signalling a contraction as has been the case in the past 16 months. Some customer demand improvement was reported, however.<\/p>\n
The new orders and new export orders components were above the neutral 50.0 value. Even though subdued client budgets and rising prices remain a problem, the rising demand can only be a good sign looking ahead, Erste Group points out.<\/p>\n
More importantly, greater volumes of new business from the EU markets were reported.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Future business expectations remain optimistic with an improvement in the index value recorded in September.<\/p>\n
The Employment Index remained, however, in the contraction zone in September, with some minor uptick in the index value.\u00a0<\/p>\n