The Ivey
Business School Purchasing Managers Index (PMI), measuring Canada’s economic
activity, increased to 48.4 in January 2021 from 46.7 in December 2020.
A reading above
50 signals expansion, while a reading below 50 indicates contraction.
Within
sub-indexes, the prices index climbed to 82.8 in January from 66.9 in December,
while the inventories indicator rose to 56.7 from 43.8 and the supplier
deliveries gauge increased to 34.7 from 30.1.
At the same
time, the employment measure fell to 41.5 in January from 45.8 in the previous
month. This was the lowest level since April 2020.