Manufacturing PMI down in April

Turkey's Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) for the manufacturing sector dropped to 50.4 in April, a monthly business survey revealed on May 3. 

The PMI decreased by 2.2 points from 52.6 in March, according to the report by the Istanbul Chamber of Industry prepared in collaboration with London-based global data firm IHS Markit.

"In terms of production, the last wave of COVID-19 outbreak negatively affected all 10 industries monitored in the survey, and a widespread slowdown in production was observed," the report said.

It noted that the firms continued to expand their staffing levels, despite slowdown in the production.

The manufacturing PMI is a composite single-figure indicator, and any figure greater than 50 indicates an overall improvement of the sector, the report underlined.

"The headline PMI posted for the 11th successive month in April, [is] signaling a marginal improvement in overall business conditions," it added.

While the slowdown in output ended a three-month sequence of growth,
it was still much weaker than seen during the early part of the pandemic in April
and May last year.
The report also underlined the price problems by saying that inflationary pressures remained elevated at the start of the second quarter.

"Input costs rose sharply with firms reporting exchange rate weakness and higher raw material prices, in some cases linked to supply shortages."

Rising input costs were often passed through to customers by way of increased selling prices, it added.

Economy,