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Source: ONE News
The manufacturing sector expanded for the third month in a row, according to the BNZ Capital-Business NZ Performance of Manufacturing Index (PMI) fo November.
The seasonally adjusted PMI rose 1.3 points from October to 51.8.
A result above 50.0 suggests the sector is expanding, and below that contracting.
Business NZ chief executive Phil O'Reilly says while the results over the last three months do not show a strong expansion, it is a vast improvement compared with a year ago when manufacturing activity dropped to its lowest point in the survey's history of 34.9.
"The improvement over 2009 has been gradual, culminating in better new orders results during the second half of the year and subsequently improving production figures," says O'Reilly.
"However, we still have to remember that while improvement has taken place, there is still a long way to go before the sector completely recovers the losses experienced over 2008 and 2009."
Similarly, BNZ Capital economist Mark Walton says November's rise is "hardly a surge" but it does suggest stabilisation is under way.
Four of the five sub-indices that make up the PMI - production, new orders, employment and deliveries of raw materials - expanded.
Finished stocks was the only sub-indice in contraction.
The PMI results also show that the food, beverage and tobacco sector was the most strongly expansionary sector, recording 66.3.
Regionally, the Northern region recorded the strongest increase in activity. All regions were in expansion with both the Otago/Southland and Central regions recording their highest level of expansion since November 2007.
New Zealand's PMI for November was similar to Australia's (51.2) and behind the United States (53.6).
The JPMorgan Global PMI also recorded 53.6.
