Manufacturing contracts in January; little coronavirus impact seen

Rebecca Howard
Fri, 14 Feb 2020

Manufacturing activity contracted for a second month in January but the sector seems fairly sanguine about the covid-19 virus so far. The Bank of New Zealand-BusinessNZ performance of manufacturing activity index rose 0.4 of a point from December to 49.6 but remained below the 50 level that separates an expansion in activity from contraction. The index, which was at 52.8 this time last year, has been in contraction for five of the past seven months. While activity is “still going nowhere,” BNZ senior economist Craig Ebert said the data co...

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