Following sharp drops in April, NEMA’s Electroindustry Business Confidence Indexes (EBCI) for both current and future North American conditions rebounded in May.
After tumbling to 27.3 points in April, the EBCI for current North American conditions sprang back to 48 points. While still slightly below the 50-point mark suggestive of industry expansion, May’s reading does point to a significant slowdown in the rate of contraction.
The EBCI is a monthly survey of senior executives at electrical manufacturers published by the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA), Rosslyn, Va.
Though the rebound in the EBCI for future North American conditions was far less pronounced, its 2.5 point-increase erased most of the previous month’s loss and brought the index back to near its March level. Despite the May pickup, though, the reading of 32 points remains a pessimistic assessment of the electrical industry’s prospects over the next six months.
Meanwhile, current and future conditions indexes for the other three world regions included in the EBCI survey were generally down in May:
- Current conditions readings slipped to 50 points for Latin America and Europe.
- The reading for Asia/Pacific dropped to 47.1 points.
- In Latin America and Europe, future conditions measures declined to 44.4 points and 46.7 points respectively.
- The EBCI future conditions index for the Asia/Pacific region climbed modestly to 52.9 points.