Washington (awp/afp) – Manufacturing activity in the New York area contracted sharply in May, for only the third time since the summer 2020 economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the Empire State monthly index released Monday by the Fed.
The index fell by 36 points, falling to -11.6 points, according to this survey of industrialists in the region.
Activity contracts when the index is below zero.
Analysts for their part anticipated a slowdown in activity, and not a decline, and saw the index settle at 15 points.
New orders fell, and shipments of goods “fell at their fastest pace since the start of the pandemic,” according to the Fed.
And the morale of industrialists is at half mast: they are much less optimistic than in April about the situation for the next six months.
Employment, on the other hand, shows a “slight uptick” in both the number of employees and the average length of the workweek, and officials surveyed expect the rise to continue.
And the prices paid to suppliers, as well as those billed to customers, are increasing less quickly, but the increase remains very strong, and should continue in the coming months.
These data confirm the pace of inflation recently published, which had reported a slight slowdown, with an increase in prices of 8.3% in April against 8.5% in March, according to the CPI index of the Department of Trade.
Activity, which had seen steady growth since the summer of 2020, has already fallen twice since the start of 2022, in January and then in March.
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/data/photo/2022/04/18/625d22590e296.jpg "Sri Lanka runs out of gas and can’t import because they don’t have dollars")
