COLUMBIA, MD – —“The seasonally adjusted Credit Manager’s Index (CMI) for October revealed an increasing sense of doom among the participants, mirroring conditions in the rest of the economy,” said Daniel North, chief economist for credit insurer Euler Hermes ACI, who analyzes the data and prepares the CMI report for the National Association of Credit Management.

The combined index fell 2.6 percent to a record low of 44.8 percent. Eight of the 10 components fell, nine are now below the 50 level, indicating economic contraction, and eight set record lows.

“The misery was spread all around but manufacturing fared the worst, losing 4.2 percent, while services fell 0.9 percent,” said North. Both manufacturing and services were below 50 percent for the second consecutive month.

“The ‘accounts placed for collection’ component was below 40 percent in both manufacturing and service sectors, suggesting that customers are trying their best to drag out terms in an effort to get credit in any form they can, because apparently banks aren’t giving any,” said North.

The complete report may be viewed at http://web.nacm.org/cmi/cmi.asp

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