Russia’s Services PMI Improves: A Stronger Business Climate?
The final Russia Services PMI (Purchasing Managers’ Index) was 55.2 in September 2017 compared to 54.2 in August 2017.
Oct. 19 2017, Updated 10:37 a.m. ET
Russia’s services PMI in September
According to a report by Markit Economics, the final Russia Services PMI (Purchasing Managers’ Index) was 55.2 in September 2017 compared to 54.2 in August 2017. The figure beat the market expectation of 55.0.
The country’s services PMI has been showing gradual improvement since July 2017, mainly due to the following:
- Production volume and output rose significantly in September compared to August.
- New orders improved at a higher rate, the best improvement since December 2012.
- Export orders and employment rose more than the past four years.
Robust client demand gave the business confidence index a boost in September 2017. That signifies that businesses are optimistic about the country’s demand outlook. The domestic economy is showing signs of strong recovery. Improvement in domestic demand is playing a major role in this recovery process.
Performance of major ETFs
The iShares MSCI Russia Capped (ERUS), which tracks the performance of Russia (RSX), rose 4.5% in September 2017. The VanEck Vectors Russia Small-Cap ETF (RSXJ), fell 0.77% that same month.
In the next part of this series, we’ll analyze the performance of Indonesia’s manufacturing PMI in September 2017.
