UNIDO World Manufacturing Production Report: Steady growth recorded in Q3 2024

Global manufacturing output grew modestly by 0.4 per cent in the third quarter of 2024 on a quarter-over-quarter basis, following a stronger increase of nearly 1 per cent in the previous quarter.

During this period, manufacturing activity showed varying quarter-over-quarter growth rates across world regions. Latin America and the Caribbean led with a notable 1.7 per cent growth, which marks the first positive result since the second quarter of 2023. China’s manufacturing sector remained dynamic, attaining a 1.1 per cent increase.

Analysing the performance by country groups, industrial economies continued on a positive but volatile growth trajectory, leading to a 0.3 per cent increase in output. The output of industrializing economies reached a similar quarter-over-quarter output growth of 0.5 per cent. Overall, the increased dynamism of industrializing economies in recent 
times suggests that a convergence process may be underway.

Industries classified as medium-high and high technology (MHT) maintained their strong dynamism, even thriving amidst numerous challenges and outperforming other manufacturing sectors. While they experienced a temporary slowdown in the first quarter of 2024, they again returned to moderate growth in the next quarter. Conversely, lower-technology manufacturing sectors remained flat.

The full report presents the latest trends in manufacturing production for the third quarter of 2024 at the global level, as well as the performance of different regions, country groups and industries. The analysis is based on quarterly indices of industrial production (IIP) available across the world. The report and a summary of the latest data can be accessed here. The underlying data can be downloaded from the UNIDO Quarterly IIP database.