The UK Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (BMI) settled at 57.7 in October, a surprisingly good performance. In the previous month, the index was still at 57.1 points, which means that, according to surveyed corporate managers, the situation has improved compared to the previous month. Analysts expected 55.8 points, a slowdown.
And the services sector showed a more significant rise: the index stood at 58 points in October, much higher than the performance of the previous month (55.4 points). Analysts expected 54.5 points.
Industrial performance is surprising amid the energy crisis and supply issues, while the industrial performance in the Eurozone is doing well. The outstanding performance of the service sector can be partly explained by the fact that British consumers increased their purchases amid a shortage of goods, caused in part by Brexit, and higher demand led to increased sales.
The UK service sector outperforms the Eurozone service sector, but both the continent and Saudi Arabia are showing strong economic performance according to preliminary BMIs. However, it should be noted that we have seen huge volatility in the index since the outbreak of the coronavirus crisis and it cannot be considered an accurate indicator.
There is still a PMI from the US today. We wrote about indices for France, Germany and the eurozone in the following articles:
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