(Omaha) — Another leading indicator continues to paint a “sideways moving” manufacturing economy in KMAland.
For the third time in the last five months, Creighton University’s Mid-America Business Conditions Index for November sank below growth neutral to 49.5–down from 50.5 in October. Growth neutral is represented by a reading of 50.0 in the survey, which includes manufacturing and supply managers in a nine-state region, including Iowa, Nebraska, and Missouri. Creighton University Economics Professor Dr. Ernie Goss says supply managers are still impacted by tariffs and weakened trade.
“In one of our neighbors, Iowa, John Deere just announced that their sales are down, their profits are down and moving lower and it’s just emblematic of what’s going on across the region,” said Goss. “Manufacturing is not doing well, but it’s holding up–I’d say sideways to down albeit.”…