In September of this year, the PMI of manufacturing companies dropped to 46.3 points, which has become the lowest indicator since May 2009. In August, the figure was 49.1 points: all in all, business activity of the industry has been decreasing for five months.

      Let us recall that an index value smaller than 50 indicates a decline in business activity. According to the poll by IHS Markit, the main reasons for this dynamics are a decrease in the number of new customers, a decrease in demand and a reduction in the number of export orders. “A poor PMI is a very bad sign. The report shows that the main reason is weak final demand”, according to Maksim Oreshkin, the Head of the Ministry of Economic Development.