(RTTNews) - The manufacturing sector in New Zealand continued to contract in March, and at a faster pace, the latest survey from BusinessNZ revealed on Friday with a Performance of Manufacturing Index score of 47.1.
That's down from the downwardly revised 49.1 ((originally 49.3) in February, and it moves further beneath the boom-or-bust line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction.
Individually, production (45.7), employment (46.8), new orders (44.7), finished stocks (49.2) and deliveries (47.8) all were in contraction.
"The PMI's average for the first quarter of the year is consistent with manufacturing GDP posting another quarter that is below that of a year earlier," BNZ Senior Economist Doug Steel said.
