New Zealand’s manufacturing sector showed an uptick in expansion during April, according to the latest BNZ – BusinessNZ Performance of Manufacturing Index (PMI). Despite the improvement in expansion during April, the proportion of negative comments from respondents increased slightly to 58% in April, compared with 57.5% in March, but still down from 59.5% in February. Negative comments during April saw some manufacturers facing a slowdown driven by high costs, global and local economic uncertainty.