IE Business Daily Business news for the Inland Empire.
The Inland Empire’s manufacturing sector is off to a good start in 2017.
The two county region’s purchasing managers index was 58.6 in February, up from 56.8 in January, according to the Institute of Applied Research and Policy Analysis at Cal State San Bernardino, which released its latest monthly report on business this week.
Fifty or above means the Inland Empire manufacturing sector is expanding. It takes three consecutive months in either direction to establish a trend, so if March holds up the Inland Empire’s marketing sector will officially be growing again.
That’s likely to happen, if the region’s purchasing managers are correct.
Forty four percent of those surveyed said they expect the local economy to improve during the next three months, while 48 percent said they expect it to remain unchanged.
Only 8 percent said they expect the economy to get weaker during that time, according to the index.
