2024-04-02 11:31:20
Geneva (awp) – The morale of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) was not good in March. Their commercial activity has generally declined, due to a lack of impetus.
Raiffeisen’s Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for SMEs rose to 47.9 points in March, compared to 50.1 points for the previous month. It is thus below the growth threshold of 50, as often during the last 12 months, notes Raiffeisen in a press release on Tuesday.
Only the component relating to orders, which with 30% weighs the most in the overall index, is still above the expansion threshold, according to the bank.
Significantly fewer SMEs reported growth, with this component only reaching 50.7 points, compared to 55.2 a month earlier. “All other components remained below the 50 mark, and most of them even fell further into the contraction zone.”
The employment component, for example, fell from 47.1 to 46.3 points, reaching its lowest level in three years. “The current figures show that the pressure on employment in the industry has not diminished,” emphasizes Raiffeisen.
In addition, the share of SMEs reporting a decline in production increased in March. The corresponding component shrank to 45.7 points against 49.0 the previous month.
If the context for Swiss companies is still complicated, it is due to the persistent weakness of foreign demand. “For several months, exports have been stagnating at a high level, but only thanks to the strong growth in pharmaceutical exports. In most other sectors, export revenues are decreasing, which was also the case in January and in February.”
And if, for its part, global industry seems to have emerged from the trough of the wave, with an order situation better than at the end of 2023, “there are no growth impulses and therefore still no sign of a more significant recovery in the near future”, notes Raiffeisen again.
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