Poland’s manufacturing PMI dropped to 47 points in September, its worst reading since the height of the crisis in Poland – July 2009 – as the country’s economy continues to show signs of a sharp slowdown.

The fall to crisis-period lows is “a negative surprise even compared to already negative expectations,” said Agata Urbańska, an economist for Central & Eastern Europe at HSBC, in an e-mailed statement.

Source: Markit, HSBC

The report that the companies issued along with the release of the figures made for some ugly reading. “Inflows of new orders deteriorated more sharply in September. The volume of new work has declined every month since February, and the rate of contraction in the latest period was the steepest since June 2009. New export business declined for the sixth successive month, with the pace unchanged for the second period running,” it read.

Output has fallen every month since May. In September, new orders dropped sharply, the report found, prompting manufacturers to work through their backlogs rather than produce more.

“This reading follows below-expectation industrial production growth in August and feeds expectations for this growth rate turning negative in September as forecast by the economy ministry,” said Ms Urbańska.

“[T]he leading indicators domestically and abroad, among them PMI, still give no indication of the economic slowdown bottoming out in the near future,” she added.