By Babajide Komolafe

The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, yesterday said that decline in economic activities persisted in October but at a slower rate.

This was contained in the CBN’s Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) report for October released by the apex bank yesterday.

The report indicated that activities in the manufacturing and non-manufacturing sectors declined for the tenth consecutive month.

According to the report, “production level, new orders, employment level and raw material inventories in the manufacturing sector declined at a slower rate but supplier delivery time improved at a faster rate in October 2016.

‘’Business activity, new orders, employment level and raw materials inventories in the non- manufacturing sector declined at slower rate in October 2016.”

Manufacturing sector declines

The report stated:  “The Manufacturing PMI stood at 44.1 index points in October 2016, compared to 42.5 in the preceding month , indicating a slowing decline in the manufacturing sector during the review period.

‘’Fourteen of the sixteen sub-sectors surveyed recorded declines in the review month in the following order: electrical equipment; primary metal; fabricated metal products; petroleum & coal products; transportation equipment; computer & electronic products; printing & related support activities; non-metallic mineral products; plastics & rubber products; furniture & related products; paper products; textile, apparel, leather & footwear; cement and chemical & pharmaceutical products.”