The overall economy grew for the 76th straight month, while the manufacturing sector contracted, the Institute for Supply Management reported yesterday.
According to the ISM’s monthly report on business, the ISM index decreased to 48.3 in February from 50.7 in January.
Economists polled by IFR Markets predicted the index would slip to 48.1.
“The manufacturing sector failed to grow during the month as the PMI fell below 50%, which indicates weaker performance in February when compared to January,” said Norbert J. Ore, chairman of the institute’s manufacturing business survey committee. “Manufacturers’ order backlogs continue to erode as the new orders index remained below 50% for the third consecutive month. With the inventories and customer inventories indexes indicating that manufacturing inventories are at reasonable levels, the major concern is rising prices and falling volume.”
