Financial Tribune - Iran Chamber of Cooperatives has measured for the first time the purchasing managers� index (PMI) for the housing sector in Iran, under the Farsi acronym �Shamekh�, for the month ending Oct. 22.

According to Ali Moti-Jahani, ICC�s deputy for support, research and planning, the new report shows that the housing PMI for the month under review stood at 44.30.

PMI is an indicator of economic health for manufacturing and service sectors. The purpose of PMI is to provide information about current business conditions to business decision-makers, analysts and purchasing managers.

Raw material inventory levels, employment conditions, new orders� conditions, supplier deliveries and export/production conditions were among criteria considered, yielding a final score of 1 to 100. If a business scores 50, it means that it has perceived no change compared to the previous month, while scores higher or lower than 50 indicate that the business is booming or slowing down respectively.