MANILA, Philippines — Manufacturing conditions in Emerging Asia will likely register an improvement in December, but further improvements will be gradual, said London-based Capital Economics.
In a recent research brief, the macroeconomy research firm noted that the average reading of Purchasing Managers’ Indexes (PMI) of Emerging Asia economies registered an uptick from October.
PMI readings for Myanmar, Philippines, and Thailand fell back but elsewhere, they were either flat or up.
Most of the Emerging Asia economies had PMIs on expansionary territory in November.
The PMI readings reflected the pick up in industrial production in Korea and Taiwan. These, however, were weak by historical standards.
“We suspect that PMIs will nudge up slightly again in December. But any further improvements should continue to be very gradual,” said Capital Economics.
“This is underlined by the underwhelming PMIs in the developed world — using flash PMIs for the US, euro-zone, UK and Japan, we estimate that the developed composite PMI was flat at 50.9 in December,” it said.
“Our forecast for continued weakness in global growth implies the region’s manufacturers will remain in the doldrums,” Capital Economics said.