Ivey Purchasing Managers Index

The Ivey Purchasing Managers Index (PMI), released on a monthly basis by the Ivey Business School at Western University, is a leading indicator gauging business activity in Canada. The data, which isn’t seasonally adjusted, is derived from surveys of senior executives at private-sector companies. The PMI includes both the public and private sectors. Respondents indicate whether their organizations’ activity is higher than, the same as, or lower than the previous month across the following five categories: purchases, employment, inventories, supplier deliveries and prices. The data can anticipate changing trends in official data series such as Gross Domestic Product (GDP), industrial production, employment and inflation. The index varies between 0 and 100, with levels of 50.0 signaling no change over the previous month. A reading above 50 indicates that the economy is generally expanding, a bullish sign for the Canadian Dollar (CAD). Meanwhile, a reading below 50 signals that activity is generally declining, which is seen as bearish for CAD.