Buyers still face a “witches’ brew” of economic problems

By Tom Stundza -- Purchasing, 9/15/2008 12:37:00 PM

U.S. industrial output posted its biggest slide in three years in August and September might not be much better since the buyers polled by PURCHASING magazine reported an industrial activity reading of 42.0 in September, basically the same as the 41.9 in August on an index where expansion requires an appraisal of 50.0. For the fourth month in a row, business activity is in a slump, according to buyers at electronic consuming companies (49.1 in the September index), metal-using firms (36.5) and chemicals-consuming companies (45.2). So, “there is a witch's brew of problems,” says chief global economist and founder Allen Sinai at Decision Economics in Boston. Read the PDF