PMI inches up to 52.1 in December
LONDON
The headline Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for the Turkish manufacturing industry remained above the 50 no-change mark in December 2021 and ticked up slightly to 52.1 from 52 in November, the latest PMI survey data from Istanbul Chamber of Industry and London-based IHS Markit have showed.
Any figure greater than 50 indicates overall improvement of the sector.
The health of the sector has now strengthened in each of the past seven months, the survey report said.
“Continued job creation was one of the factors behind the latest improvement in business conditions. Employment rose for the nineteenth successive month, and at a solid pace that was the fastest since August. Rising staffing levels were often linked to efforts to expand capacity.”
Other indices from the latest survey painted a less positive picture, however, with operations often hampered by steep inflationary pressures, according to the report.
Production was scaled back in December, following a marginal rise in November. Again, price pressures were mentioned as a factor behind the slowdown.
According to the survey, firms also moderated their purchasing activity and reduced holdings of both inputs and finished goods due to efforts to contain costs and respond to softer demand conditions.
“Cost pressures hampered operations across the Turkish manufacturing sector in December. Record rises in input costs and selling prices deterred customers from committing to new orders, led manufacturers themselves to scale back purchasing and further disrupted supply chains,” commented Andrew Harker, economics director at IHS Markit.
Alongside the potential issues caused by the emergence of the Omicron variant of the COVID-19 pandemic, the sector begins 2022 in a challenging position, Harker added.
