Page 68 - bne magazine February 2024_20240206

68 I New Europe in Numbers bne February 2024
Russia PMI
Russian manufacturing, services PMI expand in December
The Russian manufacturing sector continued to expand in December 2023, showing the strongest improvement rate in almost seven years, according to the latest PMI report from S&P Global.
The seasonally adjusted S&P Global Russia Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) posted 54.6 in December, up from 53.8 in November and above the 50.0 no-change mark to signal a “solid improvement in the health of the manufacturing sector” and showing the strongest rate of growth was since January 2017.
The seasonally adjusted S&P Global Russia Services PMI Business Activity Index registered 56.2 in December, up from 52.2 in November.
Hungary’s export-oriented industry feeling pain of global economic slowdown
Hungary's industrial output fell at a faster pace than anticipated, down 5.8% y/y (chart) in November, accelerating from a 3.2% decline in the previous month, according to data released by the Central Statistics Office (KSH) on January 9. The adjusted annualised data showed
a 5.6% decline and the monthly contraction was 2.3%.
The weakness in the European economy has hurt the country’s export- oriented industry. Output of most manufacturing sector branches declined, except for the coke and refined petroleum products and
the chemicals and chemical products branches, KSH said.
Romania’s employment up 4.2% over past three years, GDP surges three times faster
The number of employees in Romania increased to 5.135mn at the end of November, 206,700 (up 4.2%) more compared to the base level reached in the same month of the Covid year 2020, according to data published by the statistics office INS.
The actual involvement of the workforce in the economy grew by less than 4.2%, as a large number of employees previously on the grey market in construction and hotels, restaurants and catering (horeca) got normal labour contracts. In the meantime, the country’s GDP advanced by 14.1% in Q3 2023 compared to Q3 2020 (+7.5% compared to Q3 2019).
Kazakhstan’s manufacturing sector remained in contraction mode at end of 2023, December PMI shows
Kazakhstan’s manufacturing sector remained in contraction mode at the end of 2023, according to the December purchasing managers’ index (PMI) data from Tengri Partners and SPI Global.
Sustained reductions in new orders led firms to cut production to the largest degree in almost two years, with purchasing activity, employment and inventories all scaled back, according to Tengri Partners.
The headline Kazakhstan Manufacturing PMI for December rose to 48.6 from 48.0 in November, but remained below the 50.0 no-change mark. Despite the declines at the end of the year, the average PMI reading in 2023 was the highest since the survey began in 2019 thanks to a period of solid growth through the middle part of the year.
Source: S&P Global
Hungary industrial production y/y
Source: Hungary state statistics agency
Romania: number of employees (thousands)
Tengri Partners Kazakhstan Manufacturing PMI
sa, >50 = improvement since previous month
Source: Tengri Partners, S&P Global PMI
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