United Daily News (UDN), one of the primary Taiwanese news groups, recently reported that, affected by the severe economic environment and the Covid epidemic, Mainland China’s economy had a sluggish start in January this year. The official and private Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) announced yesterday both fell from the previous month. The former was 50.1, approaching the break-even line, the latter was only 49.1, hitting a new low in 23 months. Analysts expressed the belief that after the Chinese New Year, the Mainland authorities need to increase fiscal and monetary policy support in a timely manner to ensure the realization of the goal of “maintaining stability” in the economy. According to data released by the Chinese National Bureau of Statistics, in January 2022, the manufacturing PMI was 50.1, narrowed by 0.2 percentage points, indicating that the economic expansion has slowed down. Also released on the same day by Caixin, the “Private Edition” PMI data that mainly reflects small and medium-sized enterprises in China showed that, in January 2022, the Caixin manufacturing PMI recorded 49.1, which was below the growth line of 50, and fell 1.8 percentage points from the previous month. This was the lowest since March 2020. PMI is an indicator of financial activity reflecting purchasing managers’ acquisition of goods and services. A PMI number below 50 typically reflects a decline.
Source: UDN, January 31, 2022
https://udn.com/news/story/7333/6071883