Business NZ Manufacturing PMI (April) 48.9 vs. prior 47.1

New Zealand’s manufacturing sector has been in contraction for 14 consecutive months.

BusinessNZ comment:

• An overall lack of sales and orders was the dominant theme in comments, along with a struggling economy

BNZ comment:

• PMI this year to date is consistent with manufacturing GDP trailing year earlier levels
• the details were a bit more mixed in April, rather than uniformly weak as has been the case over recent months

NZD/USD is little changed on the data. The data point is not an immediate NZ dollar mover generally.

This article was written by Eamonn Sheridan at www.forexlive.com.