Manufacturing: Excellent Current Situation – Dwindling Optimism

In the manufacturing sector, the business climate, which is at a very high level, deteriorated slightly. Although the indicator for the current situation marginally outperformed the exceptionally good results of the previous month, fewer participants expect a further improvement in the business situation in the coming months, which had a strong influence on the overall indicator. Demand again grew somewhat stronger, and order backlogs continue to be reported in many places. According to the official statistics, the depth of orders on hand in January was 5.8% above the corresponding level of the previous year. Especially in the sub-categories of intermediate and capital goods, significant increases of more than 7% were recorded. The surveyed manufacturers very frequently expressed their satisfaction with their order books in March, but this was even more the case in the previous month. Production increases were reported more frequently, whereby only a small portion of the industry-specific low inventories were able to be replenished.