New data from the Institute of Supply Management in the US showed that manufacturing sector activity contracted more than analysts expected in March, marking a fifth consecutive month of contraction.
The cut, recorded by the Institute of Supply Management, will bring some relief to the Federal Reserve, which has raised interest rates nine times over the past 13 months in an attempt to dampen demand and curb rising inflation.
Timothy Fury, Lead of the Institute for Supply Management’s survey preparation team, confirmed that the March data “reflects companies continuing to slow down production to better meet demand in the first half of 2023 and are bracing for growth later in the summer. by early autumn.
In his statement, he indicated that “the activity of the manufacturing sector decreased to 43.6% last month, down 1.4 percentage points from 47.7% in February.”
This figure is more than one percentage point below the figures expected by analysts polled by Briefing.com.
A ratio of less than 50% indicates that activity in the manufacturing sector as a whole is declining.
Source: AFP.