by Calculated Risk on 8/28/2014 02:15:00 PM

From the Kansas City Fed: Growth in Tenth District Manufacturing Activity Slowed Slightly

The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City released the August Manufacturing Survey today. According to Chad Wilkerson, vice president and economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, the survey revealed that growth in Tenth District manufacturing activity slowed slightly, but producers’ expectations for future activity remained solid.

“Growth eased a bit from last month’s pace,” Wilkerson said. “Still, August represented the eighth straight month of expansion in the region, and plant managers remained generally optimistic.”
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The month-over-month composite index was 3 in August, down from 9 in July and 6 in June. The composite index is an average of the production, new orders, employment, supplier delivery time, and raw materials inventory indexes.

Here is a graph comparing the regional Fed surveys and the ISM manufacturing index:

Click on graph for larger image.

The New York and Philly Fed surveys are averaged together (dashed green, through August), and five Fed surveys are averaged (blue, through August) including New York, Philly, Richmond, Dallas and Kansas City. The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) PMI (red) is through July (right axis).

All of the regional surveys showed expansion in August, and it seems likely the ISM index will be in mid-to-high 50 range again this month.  The ISM index for August will be released Tuesday, September 2nd.