Switzerland December manufacturing PMI 45.8 vs 49.7 prior

Swiss manufacturing activity slumped hard towards the end of last year, with both output and new orders struggling and dipping further. A point to note as well is that employment conditions also declined further, so that will leave a negative mark on overall sentiment even if services is the bigger contributor to the country’s economy. Procure notes that:

“This marks the lowest value since the announcement of US tariffs. The PMI reflects ongoing strain in the manufacturing sector, though headwinds from protectionism continued to ease in December.”

The full breakdown of the sub-indices can be seen below:

This won’t do much to change the outlook for the SNB though. The Swiss central bank will continue to have to deal with deflationary pressures as we get into the new year. And their main task will be to balance that out and trying not to overcommit on monetary policy easing.

As things stand, they are actively trying to avoid dipping into negative interest rates. Or at least not be forced into a position to utilise that again too soon. It’s all about retaining that bit of flexibility at the end of the day.

This article was written by Justin Low at investinglive.com.