One regional survey released to date in November shows contraction, and now two regional surveys show expansion.
TENTH DISTRICT MANUFACTURING SURVEY CONTINUED TO GROW
The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City released the November Manufacturing Survey today. According to Chad Wilkerson, vice president and economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, the survey revealed that Tenth District manufacturing activity continued to grow, and producers’ expectations for future activity improved moderately.
“Factory activity in our region continues to hum along at a moderate rate of growth” said Wilkerson. “The marked improvement in hiring plans was a nice development.”
TENTH DISTRICT MANUFACTURING SUMMARY
Tenth District manufacturing activity continued to grow in November, and producers’ expectations for future activity improved moderately. Respondents continued to comment about uncertainty holding back activity, although several firms reported an uptick in hiring plans for skilled positions. Most price indexes decreased, especially for raw materials, but remained well above zero.
The month-over-month composite index was 7 in November, up from 6 in October and 2 in September.
Summary of all Federal Reserve Districts Manufacturing:
Richmond Fed (hyperlink to reports):
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Kansas Fed (hyperlink to reports):
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Dallas Fed (hyperlink to reports):
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Philly Fed (hyperlink to reports):
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New York Fed (hyperlink to reports):
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Federal Reserve Industrial Production – Actual Data (hyperlink to report)
Holding this and other survey’s Econintersect follows accountable for their predictions, the following graph compares the hard data from Industrial Products manufacturing subindex (dark blue bar) and US Census manufacturing shipments (lighter blue bar) to the Kansas City Survey (pea-green bar).
Comparing Surveys to Hard Data
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In the above graphic, hard data is the long bars, and surveys are the short bars. The arrows on the left side are the key to growth or contraction.