ECONOMICS COMMENTARY — Feb 08, 2022
Monthly PMI Bulletin: February 2022
By Chris Williamson and Jingyi Pan
The following is an extract from IHS Markit's latest Monthly PMI Bulletin. For the full report, please click on the 'Download Full Report' link.
The global economy expanded for a nineteenth straight month* in January, according to the JPMorgan Global PMI™ (compiled by IHS Markit), although the rate of expansion slowed to an 18-month low amid rising COVID-19 infections.
Both manufacturing and service sectors remained in expansion but saw their rates of growth slow markedly, each recording the smallest monthly improvements since July 2020.
A broad tightening of official measures to restrict the spread of the virus had been reflected via an increase in IHS Markit's Global COVID-19 Containment Index for a second month in January.
In particular, consumer services activity had been hard hit by the COVID-19 Omicron variant's disruption. Detailed sector data revealed that the tourism and recreation sector reported the steepest downturn by far. The added impact from the spread of the more infectious Omicron variant had also been disruptions towards both materials and staff, shortages of which were again widely reported by companies - and to an extent far exceeding any time prior to the past few months. The indirect impact on prices is also expected to be continuously felt in the months to come.
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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.
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.