Manufacturing PMI hits record low in April

Colombo (News 1st): According to the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, manufacturing activities in the country contracted, recording the all-time low index value of 41.0 in April 2019 with a decline of 25.9 index points from March 2019. 2018 April had 45.5 index points. The contraction of PMI in April was largely attributable to the contraction in Production and New Orders, a trend in line with the pattern observed in previous years. The decline was further aggravated by the adverse impact caused by the 04/21 attacks, restricted working hours due to security concerns, the imposition of island-wide curfew, intermittent power cuts, as well as long vacations. Employment also dropped significantly as a higher number of employees were absent after the New Year holidays. The services sector deteriorated in April 2019, recording an index value of 45.3, 7.9 index points lower than the service sector PMI of 53.2 in April last year. This is the first time that the services PMI recorded a value below the neutral 50.0 thresholds signalling overall deterioration in the services sector.