Monday, May 4, 2020

4/5/20: BRIC Manufacturing PMI: April


Coronavirus pandemic has finally bitted deeply into the BRICs economic activity data, with April 2020 manufacturing PMIs coming in sharp down:


Combined, GDP-weighted average Manufacturing PMI for Brazil, Russia, India and China came in at 41.4 in April 2020, down from 49.1 in 1Q 2020 and 51.2 in 4Q 2019. Sharp declines in Brazil Manufacturing PMI (down to 36.0 in April, compared to 50.6 in 1Q 2020), Russia (down from an already-recessionary 47.9 in 1Q 2020 to 31.3 in April), and India (collapsing from 53.9 in 1Q 2020 to 27.4 in April) were also not helped by the continued weakness in China (1Q 2020 PMI was 47.2, albeit March 2020 reading was an encouraging 50.1, down to 49.4 in April). So far, the first month of 2Q 2020 shows no positive indicators for Manufacturing sectors across all BRICs.

However, even with this woeful performance, BRICs managed to post higher PMI (slower decline in the economic activity) than the Global economy. Global Manufacturing PMI in April sunk to 39.8 from 48.4 in 1Q 2020 - a drop of 8.6 points, against BRIC Manufacturing PMI sinking from 49.1 to 41.4 - a drop of 7.8 points.

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