How inconvenient

Oh dear. The oppositions manufactured crisis in manufacturing has been dealt another blow. Today saw the release of the latest BNZ/Business NZ Performance of Manufacturing Index. And what does it say:

The manufacturing sector recorded its highest level of activity for almost nine years, according to the latest BNZ – BusinessNZ Performance of Manufacturing Index (PMI).

The seasonally adjusted PMI for May was 59.2 (a PMI reading above 50.0 indicates that manufacturing is generally expanding; below 50.0 that it is declining). This is the highest level of overall expansion since June 2004. Compared with previous May results, the 2013 value was the highest since the survey began in 2002.

That’s a strange definition of crisis.

BNZ Economist Doug Steel said that PMI results do not get much bigger than this, even globally. 

“The pick-up is material. It puts upside risk to our manufacturing and overall economic growth forecasts over coming quarters. The strong result essentially gives us more confidence that the recent and forecast upswing in construction activity will flow through to manufacturing activity, with the usual lag.”

Russel Norman will be very upset.

That’s a pretty impressive crisis.