The April manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) dropped to a record low of 27.4 amidst the lockdown as per an IHS Markit study. With the PMI known to have
contracted for the first time in three years, it is by far the lowest since the survey first recorded data in March 2005. Blaming the lockdown of factories and the stringent restrictions on consumers for the decline, record contractions in output, new orders and employment point to a severe deterioration in demand conditions according to the study. For instance, new export orders saw the steepest decline. New orders fell for the first time in two-and-a-half years and at the sharpest rate in the survey’s history, far
outpacing the drop during the global financial crisis.
