{"id":327593,"date":"2026-03-13T11:08:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T11:08:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/327593\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T11:08:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T11:08:17","slug":"manufacturing-activity-expands-reinforcing-expectations-of-economic-recovery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/327593\/","title":{"rendered":"Manufacturing activity expands, reinforcing expectations of economic recovery"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A<\/p>\n

\nManufacturing activity in February continued expanding at the same pace as in January.
\nPhoto: 123RF\n<\/p>\n

Manufacturing activity eases slightly by 0.1 points to 55.0 – above 50 is expansion
\n Activity remains near four-year highs
\n All five sub-indexes are in expansion – deliveries and employment slow
\n Middle East chaos clouds outlooks – increases inflation risks<\/p>\n

Manufacturing activity in February continued expanding at the same pace as in January, reinforcing expectations that the economic recovery is continuing.<\/p>\n

The BNZ-BusinessNZ Performance of Manufacturing Index (PMI) eased by just 0.1 points to 55.0 – just below January’s 55.1 reading.<\/p>\n

Manufacturing activity remains near four-year highs<\/a>, and comfortably above the long\u2011term survey average of 52.5.<\/p>\n

A reading above 50 indicated the sector was expanding.<\/p>\n

BusinessNZ’s Director of Advocacy, Catherine Beard, said the February result marked the first time since mid-2021 that activity had recorded three consecutive months at 55.0 or higher.<\/p>\n

“All \ufb01ve sub-index values were again in expansion during February, led by the two key indices of New Orders (57.6) and Production (56.7), followed by Deliveries (51.0),” Beard said.<\/p>\n

“Employment (50.4) dipped from January, but still remained in slight expansion,” Beard said.<\/p>\n

The proportion of positive comments from respondents stood at 55.5 percent in February, up from 47.7 percent in January, but down from 57.1% in December.<\/p>\n

Manufacturers reported more orders, enquiries, and sales, supported by stronger export demand and improving conditions in certain sectors, with some reporting a growing pipeline of work and a gradual improvement in business con\ufb01dence.<\/p>\n

BNZ’s senior economist Doug Steel cautioned that February’s data did not capture the impact of the conflict in the Middle East and said recent data had taken a backseat to the recent chaos there.<\/p>\n

Steel said the conflict’s timing was poor, with the economy just beginning a fragile recovery and inflation still above three percent, posing risks to both.<\/p>\n

Additionally, a significant proportion of manufacturing output was exported overseas and the conflict’s impact on our trading partners would also have to be watched closely.<\/p>\n

Despite external events, Steel was still upbeat, noting “the February out-turn well above the breakeven 50 mark is a useful starting point”.<\/p>\n

Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero<\/a>, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Manufacturing activity in February continued expanding at the same pace as in January. Photo: 123RF Manufacturing activity eases…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":327594,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[48,138,47,219,111,43,139,69,49,46,44,45],"class_list":["post-327593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-audio","tag-business","tag-current-affairs","tag-economy","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-podcasts","tag-public-radio","tag-radio-new-zealand","tag-rnz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=327593"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327593\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/327594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}