NTC’s Purchasing Managers’ Index is a monthly survey of business conditions.

NTC uses identical survey methodology in each country, providing Purchasing Managers' Surveys with the added advantage of producing internationally comparable data.

In the second half of every month, questionnaires are dispatched by email or fax to a panel of companies, carefully selected such that the panel structure accurately reflects the true composition of manufacturing industry (determined by official data on industry sector, geographical and company size contribution to total output).

Within each company, senior executives (wherever possible, those responsible for the company's purchasing) provide information on variables such as business activity/output, orders/demand, prices, employment etc.

Information provided
The base of the NTC PMI data has traditionally been their manufacturing survey but they have now extended their research into other sectors. The extension of the manufacturing PMI into sectors such as services and construction means that the "purchasing" surveys cover a larger proportion of private sector economic activity than any other monthly survey. NTC already produces service sector data in Euro Zone, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Russia, Spain and United Kingdom. Surveys of construction are available on Germany and UK and data on the whole economy are available on Euro Zone and Hong Kong.

Countries and regions covered
Austria, Euro Zone, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Spain, United Kingdom.