Global PMI at 11-year high as services take the lead

The following is an extract from IHS Markit's monthly PMI overview presentation. For the full report please click on the link at the bottom of the article.

Global economic growth accelerated sharply in April to reach an 11-year high. At 56.3, up from 54.8 in March, the JPMorgan Global PMI™ (compiled by IHS Markit) struck its highest since April 2010. The latest expansion took the recent run of growth into its tenth month as many economies around the world continued to recover from COVID-19 downturns.

The progress of the recovery from the virus was underscored by the global service sector reporting faster growth than manufacturing for the first time since the pandemic began, achieving its strongest upturn in business activity since July 2007. The outperformance of the service sector, which has lagged the manufacturing sector's revival due to strict controls on social distancing and travel, coincided with COVID-related restrictions easing globally to the lowest since last October. Manufacturing meanwhile saw growth accelerate to the fastest since February 2011 despite near record supply delays and shortages of inputs.

Chris Williamson, Chief Business Economist, IHS Markit

Tel: +44 207 260 2329

chris.williamson@ihsmarkit.com

© 2021, IHS Markit Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.

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Purchasing Managers' Index™ (PMI™) data are compiled by IHS Markit for more than 40 economies worldwide. The monthly data are derived from surveys of senior executives at private sector companies, and are available only via subscription. The PMI dataset features a headline number, which indicates the overall health of an economy, and sub-indices, which provide insights into other key economic drivers such as GDP, inflation, exports, capacity utilization, employment and inventories. The PMI data are used by financial and corporate professionals to better understand where economies and markets are headed, and to uncover opportunities.

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This article was published by S&P Global Market Intelligence and not by S&P Global Ratings, which is a separately managed division of S&P Global.