Canadian February PMI from Markit:
- Strongest one-month improvement in a year
- Highest reading since Feb 2019
- Prior was 50.6
- Employment highest since Nov 2019
- New orders 51.7 vs 51.0 prior
- Full release
The rise in the headline PMI mostly reflected faster rates of output and new order growth.
Commenting on the PMI data, Tim Moore, Economics Associate Director at IHS Markit said:
"February data suggested a modest improvement in new order growth across the Canadian manufacturing sector, helped by a rise in export sales for the first time in five months. The gradual rebound in workloads boosted production volumes and underpinned a slight rebound in job creation. Consumer goods remained the best-performing area of manufacturing, with robust output growth contrasting with sluggish trends in the intermediate and investment goods categories. "Manufacturers had to contend with more widespread supply chain disruptions in February, with lead times for manufacturing inputs lengthening to the greatest extent for 12 months. Survey respondents cited a combination of rail transport delays and reduced availability of items sourced from suppliers in China, but there were only a small number of reports that supply chain difficulties had acted as a constraint on production schedules."
