Manufacturing Activity:
- The average utilization of production capacity in December increased to 77.3%, up by 1.4 percentage points compared to November. However, it was 1.1 percentage points lower than in December 2022, indicating a 1.4% decline.
- In December, 5.4% of companies increased their workforce compared to November, while 86.3% maintained the same number of employees, and 8.3% reduced their workforce.
Sales Expectations:
- The indicator for expected sales in the domestic market showed a slight decline of 0.6 percentage points compared to November and was 8.1 percentage points lower than in December last year.
- Conversely, the indicator for expected sales in the foreign market increased by 6.2 percentage points in December compared to November but was 5.9 percentage points lower than in December last year.
Employment Expectations:
Supported by
- In December, 14.1% of companies planned to increase their workforce in the next three months, while 2% planned to reduce it. This represents a decrease compared to November’s figures.
Price Expectations:
- The indicator for expected price movements experienced a significant decline of 19.5 percentage points compared to November, reaching its lowest level since August 2021. Additionally, it decreased by 19.3 percentage points compared to December last year.
Business Constraints:
- Besides the chronic issue of labor shortage, uncertainty in receivables collection ranked second among the major business constraints.
- The business climate indicator in December increased by 1.7 percentage points compared to November, driven by higher expectations and current conditions. However, it was 0.8 percentage points lower than in December last year.
- Regarding inventory levels, the indicator for finished product stocks recorded a negative value of 13.6 percentage points in December, indicating lower stock levels compared to November and the previous December.
- The current employment indicator in December decreased by 2.9 percentage points, signifying a decline in the number of employed workers.
- Companies identified various business constraints, including credit scarcity, monopolistic behavior, regulatory challenges, uncertainty in receivables collection, and labor shortages. The perception of these constraints varied across different-sized enterprises, with larger companies more concerned about labor shortages and smaller ones about receivables collection uncertainty.
