"Hungary's manufacturing purchasing manager index (PMI) has not been as low as in November ever.The seasonally adjusted Sep PMI stood at 39.9 in the eleventh month of the year, down 2.9 percentage points from October (42.8), the Hungarian Association of Logistics, Purchasing and Inventory Management (HALPIM), the publisher of the index, has reported on Monday.
A PMI index figure above 50 indicates expansion while a figure below 50 shows contraction in economic activity. The index has been above 50 points for more than three years before it dropped to 49.9 in September this year.
The Nov PMI figure is the smallest ever since September 1995, the HALPIM said. The last time the Nov index was below 50 was in 1998 (48.6).
The average growth of the January-November period (50.5) is 2.4 ppts smaller than in the average of the same period of the past three years (52.9).
Bar two exceptions, the Nov sub-indices were all negative.
Economic recession looms not only over Hungary. Switzerland's PMI has also dropped to its historic low (35.2) and the Polish indicator hit a ten-year low at 40.5. The euro zone's revised PMI, also published today, slipped to 35.6 points in November."
Source: Portfolio Online Financial Journal
.jpg)
02.12.2008