Global manufacturing lost some traction in November, with both output and new orders expanding at slower rates and employment slipping back into contraction. The JP Morgan Global Manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) dipped to 50.5 from October’s 50.9, its weakest level in the current four-month growth streak.

Although three of the five PMI components continued to reflect improving operating conditions, employment and stocks of purchases contracted. Production and new orders rose for the fourth straight month, supported by consumer and intermediate goods, but investment goods saw renewed declines.

Thailand, India, Vietnam, Colombia, Pakistan and the US led global output rankings. The euro area and the UK registered mild growth, Japan contracted, and China saw output stagnate. Export demand remained a drag: global new export orders fell for the eighth consecutive month, though at the slowest pace in the current downturn. Developed markets such as the US, Japan and the euro area saw declines, while emerging markets, including mainland China and India, recorded increases.

Global manufacturing growth softened in November as the PMI slipped to 50.5, reflecting slower gains in output and new orders and a return to job losses.
Consumer and intermediate goods drove expansion, but investment goods weakened.
Export demand continued to contract, while business sentiment improved slightly yet stayed below average.
Inflation pressures persisted, especially in developed markets.

Business confidence edged up to a five-month high but stayed below its long-run average for the twentieth consecutive month. Brazil, Colombia and Thailand were the most optimistic, with the UK and the US also ranking high. The new orders-to-inventory ratio reached an eight-month peak, signalling tentative resilience ahead.

Employment fell for the second time in three months, with job cuts in China, the euro area and the UK offset by gains in the US, Japan and India. Backlogs of work continued to shrink, marking forty-one straight months of decline. Inventory, purchasing activity and input stock indices all pointed to contractions.

Input costs and factory-gate prices rose again, with inflation pressures sharper in developed markets. Supply chains remained strained as average vendor delivery times lengthened for the eighteenth month running.

“The JP Morgan global manufacturing output PMI fell back 0.3-points to 51.2 in November, a level consistent with modest but resilient growth in global industry. In our forward-looking indicators, the future output PMI made a reassuring 1.4-point rebound after dropping in October, though this was tempered somewhat by a fall in the new orders index to a four-month low. By economy, output in the US and India are still expanding at solid rates, whereas the performances in China and the rest of the G-4 remain lacklustre in comparison,” Maia Crook, Global Economist at JP Morgan, said in a release.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (KD)

Chinese group JD.com has acquired an 85.2% stake in Germany’s Ceconomy, the holding company that controls the MediaMarkt (MediaWorld in Italy) and Saturn retail chains, in a deal worth €2.2 billion, according to several specialist trade publications.

Around 60% comes from JD.com’s takeover bid, with the remainder resulting from an agreement with Convergenta, the Kellerhals family’s holding company, which will retain a 25.35% stake. The company announced it in a statement.

Germany’s federal antitrust authority gave its approval in September, noting that JD.com had previously been ‘active in Germany only to a very limited extent.’

However, according to Ceconomy, completion of the public tender offer is still subject to approval by the relevant foreign trade authorities and to approval under the EU Foreign Subsidies Regulation. Completion is therefore expected in the first half of 2026.