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Industrial barometer: in August, growth in industry got close to zero
The Romanian industry recorded growth close to zero in August,the lowest level of the last seven months and the expectations of the managers drop even more,according to the industrial barometer made by IRSOP and SNSPA monthly and published on Monday.
The volume of the production is positive but it dropped at 51 points against 56 in July and is now close to the level between growth and contraction, according to the report.
The index for optimism of the managers dropped from 59 to 56 points and is now 5 points under the historic average. The value of the index is the aggregation of the expectations of the managers regarding the request of the production and the future collections.
Similarly, the new orders ‘ got’ in the negative at 49 against 52 in July,and the drop creates vulnerability as it threatens the production in the months to come and erodes the trust of the managers in the business.
At the same time, the imports of raw material continued to drop from 60 in June to 54 in July and 51 in August in the context of the reduction of the activity over the last three months.
The number ofemployees contracted from 50 in May to 47 in August reaching the lowest level since January 2017 until the present moment.
‘The labour market is no longer very flexible, the number of employees in industry is sensitive to the changes of the level of activity especially when the changes are negative’the report shows.
At the same time, the production costs are volatile enough but they fluctuate within a tight interval between 66 and 70 points in the expansion area.
Moreover,the prices collected by companies for their own products went up with one point against July from57to 58. However, the value of the indicator is below the average of the last 7 months,which means that the companies practise a policy of prices which is rather limiting rather than expanding,according to the report.
The data were collected through interviews with the managers of the companies between 19-20 September 2018.
The report was made by IRSOP and SNSPA the Management Faculty on a sampleof 300 industrial companies representative at the level of the 15,200 industrial companies with more than 9 employees in Romania which generates approximately 95% of the total of the business turn over in industry.
