The Purchasing Managers’ Index for Iran’s construction sector hit a 23-month low in the current fiscal year’s first month (March 21-April 20).
Iran Chamber of Cooperatives’ latest monthly report on Purchasing Managers’ Index for the sector shows the index settled at 35.32 for the month under review from 58.72 in the preceding month (Feb. 20-March 20), indicating a 39.85% decline.
PMI is an indicator of the health of economic sectors and 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 quizzed, 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 expanding or contracting respectively.
The survey includes 12 business criteria and any changes, whether it be improving, no changes or deteriorating. It is measured through a monthly survey sent to senior executives of 100 companies active in the real-estate sector.
It is based on five major survey areas: "new orders" with a coefficient of 30%, "raw material inventory" (10%), "production" (25%), "supplier deliveries" (15%) and "employment" (20%).
The "new orders" sub-index stood at 38.58 in the month ending April 20, indicating a 25.43% decrease compared with 51.74 in the month ending March 20.
“Sales" declined by 30.69% from 51.74 in the 12th month of last fiscal year to 35.86 in the first month of the current year
The "supplier deliveries" sub-index, which measures how fast deliveries are made, decreased by 25.77% from 59.3 in the month ending March 20 to 44.02 in the month ending April 20.
The "raw materials (construction materials) inventory" sub-index decreased by 1.1% from 40.11 in the month ending March 20 to 39.67 in the month leading to April 20.
The "employment" sub-index increased by 0.57% from 45.93 in the month ending March 20 to 46.19 in the month ending April 20.
To calculate housing PMI, seven secondary criteria were also surveyed by ICC, including "raw material purchase prices", which stood at 70.34 in the month ending March 20. The sub-index grew by 12.8% to stand at 79.34 in the month ending April 20.
"Warehouse inventory" declined by 11.03% to reach 42.93 in the first Iranian month from 48.25 in the 12th month of the previous fiscal year (ended March 20, 2022).
The "exports" sub-index settled at 46.73 in the month ending April 20 from 48.25 in the month ending March 20, registering a 3.15% decrease.
"Prices of products and services" increased by 2.83% to stand at 65.76 in the month ending April 20 from 63.95 in the previous month.
"Fuel consumption" decreased by 0.96% from 48.83 in the 12th Iranian month of the previous fiscal year to 48.36 in the first fiscal month of the current fiscal year.
"Sales" declined by 30.69% from 51.74 in the 12th month of the last year to 35.86 in the first month of the current year.
The sub-index of "performance expectations for the following month" settled at 59.78 in the month ending April 20 from 37.2 in the month before, showing a 60.7% increase.
