GlobalAmong the 18 countries in the table that report manufacturing PMI data in June, only four show month-to-month improvements. These countries include China, Russia, Malaysia, and Mexico. In June, developed economies seemed to be hit much harder than developing economies.
Over three months, there are six countries of the 18 that improve compared to their PMI readings of six months ago; these include Mexico, Russia, India, Brazil, Malaysia, and Vietnam. None of the G7 countries are on that list either.
Over six months compared to 12 months, six countries improve including Mexico, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, and South Korea. Among G7 countries, only Japan appears on that list.
Recent data have been showing broad improvement of manufacturing areas when compared to 12 months ago. However, as of June the breadth of this improvement is being challenged. Eight countries or regions improve over 12 months compared to 12 months ago. Those include the euro area, France the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Japan, India, and Malaysia. Based on these longer-term comparisons, developed economies are faring much better among the largest G7 countries in the table; only Germany and the U.K. fail to show improvement over 12 months.
There are also eight countries in the table that show rank percentile standings also known as queue percentile standings below their 50% mark. The 50-percentile mark designates the median observation over the sample. Our data period extends back to January 2018. Among those countries and regions that are below their 50% mark are the euro area, Germany, France, the U.S., the U.K., Indonesia, Taiwan, and Turkey. Once again you see a proliferation of G7 countries on this list.
There are still several countries that haven't improved their manufacturing position compared to where it was before COVID hit. These include India, Taiwan, and Turkey. The countries whose manufacturing sectors have improved the most since COVID struck are Germany, Canada, the euro area and Japan.
The data shows some widespread weakness in manufacturing particularly among the developed economies that we think of as the demand centers for global growth. China has a relatively stronger queue-ranking compared the G7 countries and it is also an important source of demand as well as supply. But China has been weak for some time and its outright manufacturing diffusion reading continues to be weak even though it ranks well on this timeline. To underscore this, China shows that since COVID struck its manufacturing reading is only 0.7 points higher, making it one of the weaker economies recovering since COVID struck.
Table 1
