Iran's Housing PMI Hits New Low

Amid the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, the Purchasing Manager's Index for Iran's housing sector fell to the lowest level in the month ending March 19 since the index was first calculated for the sector in the Iranian month starting Oct. 22, 2019, with a reading of 44.30.
Iran Chamber of Cooperatives’ latest report on PMI for the real-estate and construction sectors (under the Farsi acronym “Shamekh”) for the final month of the last Iranian year shows the overall index settled at 35 from 51.76 in the 11th month (Jan. 21-Feb. 19), indicating a 32.38% decline. 
PMI is an indicator of the health of economic sectors. It provides information about current business conditions to decision-makers, analysts and purchasing managers. 
Raw material inventory, employment conditions, new orders, supplier deliveries and export/production conditions were among the criteria assessed, yielding a final score of between 1 and 100. 
If a business scores 50, it means that no change has been perceived compared to the previous month, while scores higher or lower than 50 indicate that the business is booming or stagnating respectively.