First stop of the day on the PMI odyssey is South Korea.

Like Japan, new orders and IP have been on a pretty steep downward slope since April.

But they jumped back to 50.1 in November (up nearly six points). And exports orders were up nearly five points to 50.9.

Funnily enough, that is the more interesting part to us: South Korea’s share of global industrial output is small (about 3 per cent), but its export mix arguably makes it an interesting barometer for Asian trade and US demand. It also does just as good a job in explaining the rather volatile ups and downs of Korean IP, as does the aggregate new orders series.

So chalk up a big positive surprise for Korea that bodes well for the region.

And a small positive for the Credit Suisse forecast, which will lift the forecast thermometer above our December target.

Next up China!

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Jonathan Wilmot, chief global strategist at Credit Suisse Investment Bank and team are blogging at FT Alphaville for the day.

Please read this Credit Suisse small print.

This entry was posted by Guest writer on Wednesday, December 1st, 2010 at 0:59 and is filed under Capital markets, People. Tagged with credit suisse, Jonathan wilmot, PMIs, south korea. Edit this entry.