‘NOT AS WORRIED’: Companies are conservative about business and hesitate to speculate on a recovery, as outbreaks remain out of control in many countries
Taipei Times
Date: Jun 02, 2020
By: Crystal Hsu / Staff reporter
The COVID-19 pandemic last month continued to weigh on business across nearly all sectors, dragging the official manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) to a record low, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday.
The PMI shed 2.8 points to 44.8, the worst showing since the launch of the survey in July 2012, as all manufacturing sectors reported declines in business, the survey found.
PMI aims to gauge the manufacturing industry’s health, with points higher than 50 indicating business expansion and values lower than the threshold suggesting contraction.
It was the second consecutive month it has retreated, with makers of electronics and biotech products no longer immune to the effects of the virus, the Taipei-based think tank said.
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