US business activity nears stagnation in September: PMI

The business activity The US showed little change in September and the large services sector grew at the slowest pace since February, while new orders fell to lows for this year, a survey published on Friday showed.

According to S&P Global, the composite PMI index of USA, that analyzes the manufacturing sectors and services, fell to 50.1 points in September, compared to 50.2 points in August. The recent result is just above the 50 level, which separates expansion from contraction.

The composite index of new orders fell to its lowest level since December (47.7 compared to 49.2 last month), marking a second consecutive month of decline. Input cost pressure also increased for a second month.

So far this year, the American economy has defied forecasts that it would fall into a recession, which most economists expected to be triggered by aggressive increases in U.S. interest rates. Federal Reserve intended to quell the inflation.

He job growth and consumer spending have held steady, and the pace of inflation has slowed noticeably, prompting policymakers Fed to improve on Wednesday economic forecasts to a point that suggests many of them now believe a recession can be avoided entirely.

The Fed kept unchanged interest rates, but indicated that borrowing costs will remain high well into next year, which could make it difficult for the economy to advance. In fact, a number of indicators have signaled in the last month that momentum is slowing and PMI Friday reinforce that opinion.

“The data of the PMI September raised concerns about the path of demand in the US economy following increases in interest rates and high inflation”said Siân Jones, chief economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence.

He PMI The survey’s services index fell to an eight-month low of 50.2, slightly below the reading of 50.6 expected by economists in a Reuters poll. He PMI S&P manufacturing rose to 48.9 from 47.9 in August, but it was the fifth consecutive month of contraction. Economists had predicted a PMI manufacturing of 48.0.

Despite the weakening environment, both manufacturing and service sector respondents indicated that companies continued to increase their workforces this month.

He global growth Employment was the strongest in the last four months, led by the services sector, but may be difficult repeat it in the coming months. (Reporting by Dan Burns; edited in Spanish by Javier López de Lérida).

With information from Reuters