COLUMBIA, Md., July 31, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via PRWEB - The July report of the Credit Managers' Index (CMI) from the National Association of Credit Management (NACM) reflected a positive recovery to 56--higher than any monthly reading since last October.
"Think about that for a moment--[that's] as high as it was when the GDP numbers for the country were trending at close to 5% growth," said NACM Economist Chris Kuehl, Ph.D. "This is a pretty stunning turnaround."
The driving force behind the combined index's higher reading comes from the index of favorable factors, which improved from 59.6 in June to 63.5 in July. The combined sales category, however, showed the most impressive gain, jumping from 56.6 to 65.1. Durable goods orders as well as the Purchasing Mangers' Index have seen similar upward movements, Kuehl added.
For the first time since last year, all four of the favorable categories were above 60, reflecting a sign of impending growth. The index of unfavorable categories showed improvement as well with a combined reading of 51 in July, up from 49.2 in June--these gains though are not as impressive as the index of favorable factors. However, while three of the six unfavorable factors remain under the contraction zone, any sign of improvement within these categories is positive, Kuehl said.
"This is a solid trend and one that everybody hopes will continue into the remaining months of the year," Kuehl advised. "One cautionary note is to look at July and August of last year as they were strong and were followed by a dip."
For a full breakdown of the manufacturing and service sector data and graphics, view the complete July 2015 report at http://web.nacm.org/CMI/PDF/CMIcurrent.pdf. CMI archives may also be viewed on NACM's website at http://www.nacm.org/cmi/cmi-archive.html.
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NACM, headquartered in Columbia, Maryland, supports more than 15,000 business credit and financial professionals worldwide with premier industry services, tools and information. NACM and its network of affiliated associations are the leading resource for credit and financial management information, education, products and services designed to improve the management of business credit and accounts receivable. NACM's collective voice has influenced federal legislative policy results concerning commercial business and trade credit to our nation's policy makers for more than 100 years, and continues to play an active part in legislative issues pertaining to business credit and corporate bankruptcy. NACM's annual Credit Congress & Exposition conference is the largest gathering of credit professionals in the world.
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