Dipping to its lowest reading since the immediate aftermath of the lockdown era recession, the current conditions component shed 3 points from April’s score to hit 40.0 this month. The share of respondents indicating “unchanged” conditions reached 53 percent, and less than 15 percent of May’s panelists noted “better” conditions. In some cases, reports of unchanged conditions may have reflected a sense of healthy markets remaining so: “order intake has increased vs Q4 2022 and is on par with Q1 2023.” The main concerns pointing to worsened conditions included distributor destocking and worries about the debt ceiling.

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