The country’s overall Purchasing Managers’ Index witnessed a gain of 0.8 points in September, recording a faster expansion rate at 59.1 points, according to the latest PMI report published jointly by the Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Dhaka and Policy Exchange Bangladesh on Tuesday.
The PMI of Bangladesh was 58.3 points in August, which was a 3.2-point decline from the previous month, according to the report.
This latest PMI reading was attributed to a faster expansion rate for manufacturing index; however, the rate for services index witnessed a slower expansion.
The indices of both agriculture and construction reverted to expansion.
According to the report, agriculture sector reverted to expansion and the sector posted expansion readings for the indices of new business, business activity, and input costs.
However, the indices of employment and order backlogs posted slower contraction.
The manufacturing sector posted its 13th month of expansion and that so at a faster rate.
The sector posted expansion for the indices of new orders, new exports, factory output, input purchases, finished goods, imports, input prices and supplier deliveries.
Employment index reverted to expansion, while order backlogs index posted a slower contraction.
The report stated that the construction sector reverted to expansion.
The sector posted expansion for the indices of new business, construction activity and input costs.
Meanwhile, order backlogs index posted a slower contraction and employment index reverted to expansion after recording 4 months of contractions.
The services sector posted its 12th month of expansion, but at a slower rate, according to the report.
The sector posted expansion readings for the indices of new business, business activity, employment, and input costs, while the order backlogs index posted a slower contraction rate.
In terms of the future business index, faster expansion rates were recorded for the indices of manufacturing, construction and services sectors, whereas the agriculture sector posted a slower expansion rate.
M Masrur Reaz, chairman and CEO of Policy Exchange Bangladesh, stated that the latest PMI readings indicated that the overall Bangladeshi economy continued to expand at a slightly faster rate in September.
‘Agriculture and construction sectors reverted to expansion after improvements in weather conditions and gradual rollout of the new fiscal year budget,’ he added.
Meanwhile, the service sector posted a slower expansion reading, possibly due to persistent inflation, which is still the highest in South Asia, he said.
PMI is a survey-based indicator of a sector or country’s business conditions, where short surveys are held monthly and respondents are asked to report the change in each variable compared to the prior month.
A PMI reading above 50 indicates that the sector or economy is generally ‘expanding’, where 50 indicates ‘no change’ and below 50 indicates ‘contraction.’