Manufacturing in Austria improves at fastest rate in close to six years
Staff Writer |
Austria’s manufacturing sector enjoyed its strongest performance in nearly six years at the start of 2017.
This was highlighted by the seasonally adjusted Bank Austria Manufacturing PMI posting at a 70-month high of 57.3 in January.
With operating conditions also improving substantially towards the end of last year (55.4 in November and 56.3 in December), manufacturers saw their best three-month period of growth since early 2011.
Sector data indicated that consumer goods producers underperformed relative to their counterparts in intermediate and investment goods.
The latter two sub-sectors signalled sharp improvements in business conditions, while consum
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ttp://www.histerius.com/hs0217/austria_manufacturing.jpg" class="slikadesno" title="Austria’s manufacturing" alt="Austria’s manufacturing">Austria’s manufacturing sector enjoyed its strongest performance in nearly six years at the start of 2017.
This was highlighted by the seasonally adjusted Bank Austria Manufacturing PMI posting at a 70-month high of 57.3 in January.
With operating conditions also improving substantially towards the end of last year (55.4 in November and 56.3 in December), manufacturers saw their best three-month period of growth since early 2011.
Sector data indicated that consumer goods producers underperformed relative to their counterparts in intermediate and investment goods.
The latter two sub-sectors signalled sharp improvements in business conditions, while consumer goods reported a broad stagnation. Overall manufacturing conditions were bolstered by greater output in January. Production rose at the quickest rate since March 2011. There were reports of stronger demand, particularly from clients based in Germany.
Survey data corroborated anecdotal evidence of improved demand, as new orders increased substantially.
The latest rise was the most marked in almost six years, supported by a similarly steep expansion of new export work. Panellists cited Germany, Eastern Europe and the US as sources of new business.
Austrian manufacturers stepped up their purchasing activity in response to rising workloads. Growth of input buying accelerated to a 70-month high.
Meanwhile, both pre- and post-production inventories were depleted in January. Employment rose at a solid pace that was littlechanged from that seen in the prior two months. The rate of job creation was above the average seen across 2016 as a whole.
That said, capacity pressures continued to mount regardless of a larger workforce. Backlogs of work rose to the greatest extent since March 2011. There was also evidence of increasing pressure on supply chains in January.
Average lead times lengthened to a larger degree than in December, with firms blaming a lack of personnel and materials at suppliers’ units. ■