Mexico’s manufacturing sector contracted for the 26th month in a row in April, as factories responded to shrinking demand with a further downward adjustment to output and input costs surged, a survey showed Monday.
The seasonally adjusted S&P Global Mexico Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index rose to 49.3 in April, up from 49.2 in March, though still below the 50 threshold that separates growth from contraction.
The slight uptick in the PMI was propelled by an upturn in employment, while output, new orders and stocks of purchases contracted, the survey said.
The PMI has stayed under the 50-mark since March 2020, falling to a historic low that April.
“The renewed increases in employment and exports were encouraging signs,” said Pollyanna De Lima, economics associate director at S&P Global, who added that firms “are longing to see a rebound in demand.”
Companies polled in the survey said lower demand and “acute” price pressures restricted sales in the domestic market, while exports grew for the first time since COVID-19 hit.
“The rate of inflation continued to run close to record highs and translated into the steepest rise in selling charges in close to four years,” said De Lima.
Business confidence rebounded and the overall level of positive sentiment reached the second-highest level in over 3-1/2 years, with survey participants citing expectations of an economic recovery, improvements in supply chains, projects pending approvals, new client wins and greater tourism.
Despite renewed hopes, the manufacturing sector in Mexico continues to see “underlying fragilities,” De Lima said.
Subscribe here for just .08 cents per day to read subscriber content, join the PVDN newsletter, and browse with site ad-free. Support local news.
Trending news on PVDN
- Canadian woman hospitalized after being critically injured by rogue wave during her Puerto Vallarta honeymoon vacation A Canadian woman remains on a ventilator in a hospital after she was struck by a rogue wave while on her honeymoon in Mexico. Cory Moe, who is a long-term care nurse back in Carnduff, Saskatchewan, was in Puerto Vallarta with her husband Dalton for a delayed honeymoon and the pair were enjoying the water.…
- With new explosion and 249 minutes of tremors in the last 24-hours, warning about Mexico’s most dangerous volcano is issued In the last 24 hours, at least 128 exhalations, 249 minutes of tremors, a minor explosion, and a volcanotectonic earthquake have been recorded, which is why the population is urged not to approach the volcano.
- Puerto Vallarta or Cancun? Security issues in Acapulco and Cancún could attract tourists to Puerto Vallarta as a safer alternative The unfortunate situation of violence and insecurity that exists in tourist destinations such as Acapulco or Cancun, where executions or disputes between taxi drivers and Uber, respectively, are taking place, could attract more tourism to Puerto Vallarta, answering the question: Puerto Vallarta or Cancun?
- Puerto Vallarta carried out a cleaning day in the Cuale River Within the framework of World Environmental Education Day, the city of Puerto Vallarta coordinated a cleaning day on the banks of the Cuale River, with the participation of students and teachers of Secondary School No. 84 ‘Valentín Gómez Farías’. The councilor María Elena Curiel Preciado, president of the Building Commission for Education, Innovation, Science and…
- They find 57 teenage migrants crammed into a truck near the US border Immigration authorities in Mexico said they found 57 migrant Guatemalan teenagers crammed into a trailer on a highway near the US border on Thursday. According to the National Institute of Migration (INM), 43 boys and 14 girls occupied the trailer of the truck along with eight men and a woman and her daughter. All adolescents…
