- Prior 48.4
Spain's manufacturing sector moves into growth territory for the first time since June last year, with fresh growth seen in output and employment - helping to offset a further downturn in new orders. S&P Global notes that:
“For the first time since June last year, the Spanish manufacturing sector saw operating conditions improve in February. The driving force behind renewed sector growth was a fresh and solid uplift in factory production. Panel members often owed the latest increase in output to a relative improvement in sales volumes. In fact, with new orders falling at the softest pace since last June, latest survey data displayed some tentative evidence of the aforementioned improvement in demand. Other positive aspects within February data came from the first round of job creation in eight months as well as the weakest lengthening in lead times since December 2019. With hopes for demand recovery and better market conditions widespread amongst panel members, firms remained upbeat about their future output and registered the strongest degree of confidence since April last year.
“More negatively, rates of both input cost and charged price inflation accelerated from the preceding month, with the latter strengthening to a three-month high. Despite the slight setback, some comfort can be offered in the fact that rates have remained significantly weaker than those recorded over much of the past two-anda-half years. However, with demand looking like it may pick up in the near future, inflationary pressures are an aspect of the survey which should certainly remain under close observation.”
