Economy
April 2, 2015
The ISM Manufacturing Index Retreated Again in March
Written by Peter Wright
The Institute of Supply Management released their March report on April 1st. An explanation of the ISM index is given at the end of this piece. After the October surprise on the upside, the index slid back to 55.1 in December to 53.5 in January, to 52.9 in February and to 51.5 in March.
Any number >50 indicates expansion but clearly a slowdown is occurring in this index. The three month moving average has declined for five straight months and now stands at 52.63, which is 2.57 points below the 15 month average since January last year. This was the 30th straight month for which the 3MMA indicated growth (Figure 1).
