April Sees Slight Sales Gains After Dips in February, March

Sales increased 1.9% in April for the NAPL Printing Business Panel after decreasing in both February (-5.8%) and March (-1.0%). For the first four months of 2001 as a whole, the panel's sales were up 0.8%. During the same period last year, sales were up 7.4%.

It's unlikely that sales have strengthened much recently. Just 17.3% of the printers surveyed by NAPL report that business picked up in May, while 56.0% report business slowed, and just 6.4%—a record low—say that work-on-hand (work-in-progress and order backlog) is rising, while 45.1% see falling levels. Reports of declining activity have been two to three times more frequent than reports of rising activity in every geographic zone.

More printers do believe that the worst is over, that lower interest rates and lower taxes will begin to stimulate the economy by year end, hence the recent rise in confidence. Understandably, however, the economy still heads their list by far of major concerns heading into the second half of 2001.