(CIANEWS) - The October Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) data from S&P Global showed a significant decline in operating conditions in the Czech manufacturing sector. The slowdown resulted from weaker customer demand and a sharp drop in output due to worsening economic conditions on the domestic and world markets and a further decline in customer purchasing power. Production and new orders fell, and the pace of decline accelerated as demand was further burdened by rapidly rising prices. Firms subsequently reduced the number of employees and purchases of inputs in an attempt to limit expenses. However, the growth of energy still drove prices higher, which will have a hard impact especially on energy-intensive industries. There were few signs of a decline in inflation on the domestic and foreign markets, and at the beginning of the last quarter, Czech manufacturers still registered pessimism regarding the prospects for production in the next year. Sentiment fell to the lowest level since the start of the pandemic in April 2020. S&P's current forecast for industrial production growth in 2022 is only 1.5 %.