Research >> Economics
Texas Manufacturing Still Weak but Outlook Improves Again
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Texas factory activity remained weak and changed little from April to May, according to the business executives who responded to the Texas Manufacturing Outlook Survey. The manufacturing sector’s rate of decline stabilized over the past three months—a change from the accelerating contractions in the last quarter of 2008 and first two months of this year.
Most indicators of future activity continued to improve, suggesting manufacturers expect better conditions over the next six months. The future general business activity index—the survey’s broadest measure of Texas manufacturing trends—turned positive for the first time since September 2007. Indexes for future production, shipments, new orders and growth rate of orders rose markedly. More than a fourth of manufacturing executives foresee improvement in their firm’s outlook six months from now.
Although still negative, the overall business activity and company outlook indexes strengthened as the share of executives reporting improvements ticked up from April to May. The renewed optimism has yet to show up in the other gauges of current activity. Indexes for production, new orders and growth rate of orders showed little change from April to May, but dips in the measures for capacity utilization and shipments suggest continued weakness.
Posted: May 26, 2009 Tuesday 10:30 AM