Italy: Manufacturing PMI falls in April
The S&P Global Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) fell to 54.5 in April from March’s 55.8. April’s result marked the weakest performance since December 2020. As a result, the index remained above the 50.0 no-change threshold, pointing to a continued, albeit moderating, improvement in business conditions from the previous month.
The manufacturing PMI fell due to weaker growth of output and new orders. Output grew at the slowest rate since June 2020, while new orders expanded at the softest pace since December 2020. Both output and new orders have been hit by input shortages, supply bottlenecks, and a slowing global economy. This points towards a deteriorating economic panorama for Italy, which was also suggested by record output inflation and the fall in employment growth.
S&P Global’s Lewis Cooper commented on the outlook:
“Overall, the sector is just about weathering the storm of input shortages and rising costs, but with demand growth cooling, the challenges are likely to become more severe unless shortages can be alleviated. These issues, combined with the war in Ukraine all dampened business confidence in April, with sentiment towards output over the next year barely improving from the two-year low recorded in March.”