There are few resources available to the industrial sector which can track the health of the sector at the level of granularity that the GBI provides as well as on a monthly basis.
The February Gardner Business Index (GBI) reported its first month of expanding business activity since July 2019. The seven-month contraction in business conditions was led lower by weak backlogs and export orders along with weakness in new orders and production. During the second half of 2019, both new orders and production activity registered four months of contracting business activity. In contrast, data collected during the early months of 2020 has indicated expanding activity in production, new orders, supplier deliveries and employment. Unfortunately export orders and backlogs continue to constrain the Index from making further immediate gains. Index readings above 50 indicate expanding activity while values below 50 indicate contracting activity. The further away a reading is from 50, the greater the magnitude of activity change. Read more