Well-known Chinese financial site Caixin recently released its official Chinese Manufacturing PMI index number for January, which was 48.3. The January PMI number was the lowest for the manufacturing sector since March 2016. The new orders sub-index showed another month of decline, especially on the domestic demand side. Exports saw an increase and experts expressed their belief that the rebound was the direct result of the temporary pause of the China-US trade war. The January number also indicated that the manufacturers have been reducing head counts and unemployment has gotten worse. In the meantime, raw material prices and consumer product prices have both dropped. The Caixin report expected a continued slowdown of the Chinese economy. Caixin PMI is a well-respected economic indicator monitored globally by financial institutions. PMI (Purchasing Managers Index) is an indicator of financial activity reflecting purchasing managers’ acquisition of goods and services. A PMI number below 50 typically reflects a decline.
Source: Caixin, February 1, 2019
http://pmi.caixin.com/2019-02-01/101376926.html