Economy
May 3, 2015
The Pace of Expansion of the ISM Manufacturing Index Continues to Slow
Written by Peter Wright
The Institute of Supply Management released their April report on May 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 it then was unchanged in April. Any number > 50 indicates expansion but clearly a slowdown is occurring in this index.
The three month moving average has declined for six straight months and now stands at 51.97, which is 3.03 points below the 16 month average since January last year. This was the 31st straight month for which the 3MMA indicated growth (Figure 1).
