World economic activity slowed to a 21-month low in April when seen through the lens of the Sales Managers Indexes for the world's largest economies (China, the USA and India).
For most recent decades these three countries have collectively contributed close to 60% of total global growth, and in reality, probably significantly more, as the "rest of the world" in this case includes many countries with less reliable and often exaggerated data. In any event, if the survey results from these three countries collectively are at a 21-month low point (as is the case in April) the immediate outlook for world economic activity is unlikely to be positive.
The Sales Managers Indexes for all three countries are in fact significantly down on March, and three out of five of the growth related Indexes have fallen below the crucial 50 line separating economic growth from decline. The Staffing Index is looking particularly grim, having fallen in April to a 31 month low.
The massive Trump Tariff's are very likely to be the root cause of this sudden drop in all index values, from Business Confidence to Job Recruitment.
The Sales Managers' Indexes provide the earliest monthly data on the speed and direction of economic activity in key growth areas of the world.
The SMI’s (Sales Managers’ Indexes) are compiled and analysed by World Economics and are based on survey data collected from a panel of companies stratifying all Industry Classification Board (ICB) sectors which are weighted to reflect their contribution to national Gross Domestic Product.
Key advantages of the SMI's:
Global SMI data is published as diffusion indexes to gauge the speed and direction of economic activity.
Monthly data for 8 years is downloadable in a consistent unadjusted format for the 6 key indexes: