Manufacturing and services activities flat in April

Manufacturing and service activities remained flat in April as Sri Lanka was gripped by the island’s biggest holiday season, the SL Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) issued by the Central Bank Statistics Department indicated.

The services sector, which claims over half of Sri Lanka’s economic activity, appears to have marginally slowed during the month, with the Services Sector PMI falling to 54.2 points from 60.8 in March, and from 54.7 year-on-year (YoY).
The sub-indices of new businesses, business activities, backlogs of work and expectations of activities all declined in the services PMI for April compared to March, while expectations for activity remained noticeably higher compared to the same period last year.
The manufacturing PMI fell to 41.8 in April from 66.5 in March, although recording a slight increase of 41.6 YoY. All the sub-indices in the manufacturing sector also fell below March levels, although higher numbers of new orders were experienced compared to April 2016.
April 2017 was unique due to the employment sub index in the services PMI falling below a preceding month for the first time since the PMI began in May 2015, while the Manufacturing PMI too experienced the lowest level of employment since PMI’s inception.