Manufacturers around the world enjoyed a pick-up in activity last month, bolstering hopes the global economy is gathering steam.
A raft of surveys suggested production and demand rose in Asia, the United States and among Britain's manufacturers in October, but economists were quick to warn a variety of obstacles risked knocking back the pace of growth.
China, Japan, South Korea and India all reported rising new export orders. Britain enjoyed its fastest growth in overseas demand for its goods for more than two years, and in the US factories escaped the hit from the government shutdown that markets had been expecting.
The US manufacturing sector grew at its fastest pace in more than two years, according to the Institute of Supply Management's monthly report. Its headline index rose to 56.4 from 56.2 in September, well above a forecast for 55 in a Reuters poll.
New orders also grew at a faster pace but employment growth slowed slightly. Economists warned that while the world's largest economy may have got away relatively unscathed from the latest shutdown there were risks ahead.
James Knightley at ING Financial Markets said: "It is clear evidence that the underlying story of … manufacturing … is pretty good right now. Whether this will withstand another round of political wrangling in December and another possible government shutdown in January is a different matter."
In China the official purchasing managers index (PMI) picked up to 51.4 from 51.1 in September, beating expectations for 51.2. Klaus Baader, economist at Societe Generale, commented: "Momentum in the manufacturing sector continued to improve going into the fourth quarter.
That said, we believe that the recent strengthening of growth was once again fiscally engineered, and will not be sustainable. Indeed, we expect the Chinese economy to show signs of slowing as soon as the fourth quarter."
In the UK, the Markit/CIPS report suggested manufacturing employment rose for the sixth consecutive month. Although manufacturing output remains well below the level enjoyed before the recession, it notched up its seventh straight month of improvement with a reading of 56.0.
That was well above the 50-mark that separates expansion from contraction and down slightly from 56.3 in September.
Rob Dobson, senior economist at survey compilers Markit, said: "Despite only accounting for less than 11% of the economy, the current strength of growth seen in manufacturing means the sector will still provide a major boost to the economy in October, boding well for the strong pace of economic growth we saw in the second and third quarter being sustained into the fourth quarter."
theguardian.com
A raft of surveys suggested production and demand rose in Asia, the United States and among Britain's manufacturers in October, but economists were quick to warn a variety of obstacles risked knocking back the pace of growth.
China, Japan, South Korea and India all reported rising new export orders. Britain enjoyed its fastest growth in overseas demand for its goods for more than two years, and in the US factories escaped the hit from the government shutdown that markets had been expecting.
The US manufacturing sector grew at its fastest pace in more than two years, according to the Institute of Supply Management's monthly report. Its headline index rose to 56.4 from 56.2 in September, well above a forecast for 55 in a Reuters poll.
New orders also grew at a faster pace but employment growth slowed slightly. Economists warned that while the world's largest economy may have got away relatively unscathed from the latest shutdown there were risks ahead.
James Knightley at ING Financial Markets said: "It is clear evidence that the underlying story of … manufacturing … is pretty good right now. Whether this will withstand another round of political wrangling in December and another possible government shutdown in January is a different matter."
In China the official purchasing managers index (PMI) picked up to 51.4 from 51.1 in September, beating expectations for 51.2. Klaus Baader, economist at Societe Generale, commented: "Momentum in the manufacturing sector continued to improve going into the fourth quarter.
That said, we believe that the recent strengthening of growth was once again fiscally engineered, and will not be sustainable. Indeed, we expect the Chinese economy to show signs of slowing as soon as the fourth quarter."
In the UK, the Markit/CIPS report suggested manufacturing employment rose for the sixth consecutive month. Although manufacturing output remains well below the level enjoyed before the recession, it notched up its seventh straight month of improvement with a reading of 56.0.
That was well above the 50-mark that separates expansion from contraction and down slightly from 56.3 in September.
Rob Dobson, senior economist at survey compilers Markit, said: "Despite only accounting for less than 11% of the economy, the current strength of growth seen in manufacturing means the sector will still provide a major boost to the economy in October, boding well for the strong pace of economic growth we saw in the second and third quarter being sustained into the fourth quarter."
theguardian.com
No comments:
Post a Comment