Iran Chamber of Cooperatives has measured the purchasing managers’ index (PMI) for the country’s real-estate and construction sectors, known by the Farsi acronym “Shamekh”, for the month ending Aug. 21.
The new data show the overall PMI settled at 52.94 from 52.78 in the fifth Iranian month, indicating a 0.3% improvement month-on-month, Mehr News Agency reported.
An indicator of the health of economic sectors, PMI provides information about current business conditions to decision-makers, analysts and purchasing managers.
Raw material inventory, employment conditions, new orders, supplier deliveries and export/production conditions were among the criteria quizzed, yielding a final score of between 1 and 100.
If a business scores 50, it means that no change has been perceived compared to the previous month, while scores higher or lower than 50 indicate that the business is booming or stagnating respectively.
The housing PMI is based on five major survey fields: new orders, raw material inventory levels, production, supplier deliveries and employment.
The survey includes 12 questions about business conditions and any changes, whether it be improving, no changes or deteriorating.
It is measured through a monthly survey sent to senior executives of 100 companies active in the real-estate sector. It is based on five major survey areas: "new orders" with a coefficient of 30%, "raw material inventory " (10%), "production" (25%), "supplier deliveries" (15%) and "employment" (20%).
The "new orders" sub-index stood at 41.76 in the month ending Aug. 21, indicating a 15.65% growth compared with the previous month’s reading of 36.11.
The "supplier deliveries" sub-index, which measures how fast deliveries are made, increased from 44.44 in the month ending July 21 to 48.23 in the month ending Aug. 21, indicating an 8.53% improvement.
The "raw materials (construction materials) inventory" sub-index climbed 16.33% from 39.44 in the month ending July 21 to 45.88 in the month leading to Aug. 21.
The "employment" sub-index increased 2.27% from 48.89 in the fourth month to 50 in the fifth Iranian month.
To calculate housing PMI, seven secondary criteria were also surveyed by ICC, including "raw materials purchase prices", which stood at 86.11 in the month ending July 21. The sub-index decreased 3.68% to stand at 82.94 in the month ending Aug. 21.
"Warehouse inventory level" jumped 7.14% to 50.59 in the fifth Iranian month from 47.22 in the fourth fiscal month.
The "exports" sub-index settled at 45.29 in the month ending Aug. 21 from 43.33 in the month ending July 21, registering a 4.52% increase.
"Prices of products or services" dropped 8.92% to stand at 72.35 in the month ending Aug. 21 from 79.44 in the month ending July 21.
"Fuel consumption" went up 1.27% from 51.11 in the fourth Iranian month to 51.76 in the fifth Iranian month.
"Sales" surged 21.01% from 38.89 in the fourth month to 47.06 in the fifth month.
This is while the "performance expectations for the following month" sub-index settled at 52.36 in the month ending Aug. 21 from 35.55 in the month ending July 21, showing a 47.29% growth.