April 3 (SeeNews) - Austria's Erste Group [BSE:EBS] said Romania's manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) climbed to 49.3 in March from 47.1 in February, marking the PMI's highest reading since it was first compiled in July 2023.
However, the record value is still indicative of a contraction compared to the previous month, as the index remained below the 50.0 no-change threshold, Erste Group said in a press release on Monday.
The PMI is a weighted average of five indices related to the manufacturing industry in Romania. These indices are new orders, output, employment, suppliers' delivery times, and stocks of purchases.
"New orders was the main driver of the rebound, followed by output, both posting the highest readings on record. Nevertheless, both new orders and output declined in March, but at the lowest pace on record," said Ciprian Dascalu, Chief Economist at BCR. "The BCR Romania Manufacturing PMI has remained in contractionary territory since the start of the data collection in July 2023," he added.
The suppliers' delivery times index showed a positive contribution to the PMI in March, while export orders continued to drag it down significantly, posting a value significantly below the 50.0 no-change mark, though showing the lowest monthly fall. The employment index contributed negatively to the PMI as well.
Romania's manufacturing PMI was launched last month by Banca Comerciala Romana (BCR), the Romanian unit of Erste Group. The PMI is released on the first working day of each month and is compiled by financial analytics company S&P Global, which started sending out questionnaires to purchasing managers of approximately 400 manufacturers last year.
BCR's preliminary net profit climbed 33% to 2.321 billion lei ($504.7 million/467 million euro) in 2023. The total assets of BCR Group increased to 108.9 billion lei at the end of 2023 from 98.9 billion a year earlier.
BCR Group comprises lenders Banca Comerciala Romana and BCR Banca pentru Locuinte as well as BCR Pensii, BCR Leasing IFN and BCR Chisinau.
Erste Group's shares traded 0.05% higher at 207 lei as at 1032 CET on Wednesday on the Bucharest bourse.
(1 euro=4.9705 lei)
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