In April the growth of the global manufacturing sector cooled even more than the warming expansion rates seen at the beginning of the year, reveals the latest JPMorgan Global Manufacturing PMI released this week.

Each month, this report gives the first indication of world manufacturing business conditions based on data collected from over 7,500 purchasing executives. It collects survey information from nearly 20 nations, including the U.S., Japan, China, France, Germany and Russia.

At 55.0 in April, global PMI fell for the second successive month to its lowest level since last November. The headline PMI remained above the neutral 50.0 mark, signalling expansion, for the twenty-second successive month and was slightly above its average for that period. Expansion rates eased to seven-month lows for both manufacturing production and new orders in April.

"The PMIs for April indicate that, while the global economy is still expanding, the pace has moderated considerably," remarked industry analyst Prieur du Plessis, chairman/founder of South African-based Plexus Asset Management. "The onset of a declining trend in the Global PMIs is now a fact. The flock of black swans in the global pond is growing and there is no evidence yet that conditions may be easing. The situation has been expanded by the terrible natural disaster in Japan, and exacerbated in the short term by the killing of Osama bin Laden. The geopolitical situation in the Middle East and North Africa is slightly improving, but is likely to put a floor under oil prices."