PRAG (dpa-AFX) - The Czech Republic's manufacturing activity contracted further in July amid a fall in output and new orders, survey data from IHS Markit showed on Thursday.
The headline manufacturing purchasing managers' index, or PMI, fell to 43.1 in July from 45.9 in June.
Any reading below 50 indicates a contraction in the sector.
New orders declined for the ninth month in July and the rate of deterioration was the fastest since April 2009. New business contracted for the second straight month.
The workforce declined at the quickest rate since April as they cut down their staff numbers in the beginning of third quarter.
Input cost inflation eased for the fifth straight month in July. Firms marginally raised the charges that was the weakest in over two-and-a-half years.
'Cost pressures continued to subside, with the latest increase in input prices only marginal overall and the slowest since the last decline in April 2016,' Eliot Kerr, economist at IHS Markit, said.
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