With respondents no longer expressing concern over monetary policy uncertainty and noting that the conclusion of the 2016 election season was near, NEMA's Electroindustry Business Confidence Index (EBCI) returned to expansionary territory with a score of 55.6. The vast majority of respondents, 78 percent, reported conditions unchanged in October, compared to 47 percent last month. Only 6 percent faced worse conditions this month versus 29 percent in September. The share of respondents seeing better conditions fell 7 points from 24 percent last month to 17 percent in October.

The survey's measure of the intensity of change in electroindustry business conditions also bounced back to a positive rating, as the mean rating flipped from -0.2 in September to +0.2 in October. Panelists are asked to report intensity of change on a scale ranging from –5 (deteriorated significantly) through 0 (unchanged) to +5 (improved significantly).

Bouncing right back to 66.7 this month, the future conditions index moved further into the range indicative of expansion after dipping to 52.9 in September. The proportion of October's respondents expecting conditions to be unchanged in six months matches that of respondents expecting conditions to be better: 44 percent. Those shares were 47 percent and 29 percent, respectively, last month. As with the current conditions, the proportion of our panelists expecting conditions to be worse six months hence dropped by 13 percentage points from 24 percent last month to only 11 percent in October.

Click here for the complete October 2016 report.