Poland's Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) inched up 0.1 points to 48 in March (chart), the economic intelligence company S&P Global said on April 2.

The reading missed the consensus, which assumed a gain of 0.5 points to 48.4. The indicator has now lingered below the 50-point mark separating contraction from growth for 23 consecutive months. 

“Lacklustre demand conditions at home and abroad, especially in major Western European export markets," drove the March decline, according to S&P Global.

“Output, new orders and exports continued their record-long downturns, with the rates of decline showing little sign of easing,” S&P Global’s economics director Trevor Balchin said.

“Price pressures remained weak, with input prices only marginally higher than in February and output prices falling for the twelfth straight month as firms attempt to stimulate sales,” Balchin also said

Still, while the March reading extends the waiting time for a decisive recovery in Poland’s manufacturing sector, the green shoots are already in sight.

Poland’s industrial sector – covering manufacturing, energy production, mining, and quarrying, as well as water and waste management – showed industrial production pick up the expansion rate to 3.3% year on year in February after a revised slide of 2.9% y/y the preceding month, Poland’s statistical office GUS said in late March.

Meanwhile, Poland's producer price index (PPI) declined 10.1% y/y in February, following a revised fall of 10.4% y/y in January, GUS also said.

GUS will publish March industrial production and PPI data from in late April.