Economy
January 5, 2016
The ISM Manufacturing Index Contracts Again in December
Written by Peter Wright
The Institute of Supply Management released their December report on January 4th 2016 with a value of 48.6 which is the lowest since June 2009. An explanation of the ISM index is given at the end of this piece. After seven straight months of decline the three month moving average (3MMA) of the index had positive growth on a month/month basis in June and July but since then has had five more months of contraction ending up at 48.97 in December.
Any number >50 indicates expansion therefore for the first time since August 2012 the 3MMA of this index is signaling contraction. This is only the third month in over six years that the index has not exceeded the positive growth threshold of 50 (Figure 1).
