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China’s PMI contracts again in January

CHINA'S economy may have a bumpy start this year as activity in both manufacturing sector and service sector deteriorated in January, data released today showed.

The official Purchasing Managers' Index, a comprehensive gauge reflecting operational conditions in largely state-owned manufacturing companies, decreased 0.3 points from a month earlier to 49.4 in January, according to the National Bureau of Statistics and the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing.

The demarcation line between growth and expansion is set at 50.

The figure represented deterioration again after a short-lived rebound in December of last year, and marked contracting industrial activity for six consecutive months.

Meanwhile, the official non-manufacturing PMI, a counterpart for the services sector, retreated to 53.5 last month, down from 54.4 in December.

Bureau analyst Zhao Qinghe said factors including the upcoming Spring Festival, extremely cold weather, and the country's strengthened efforts on tackling overcapacity are blamed for the weakening data.

"Market demand is usually not strong ahead of the Spring Festival, which starts on February 9 this year," Zhao said. "Also, some factories takes initiative of reducing production to respond to the country's call of economic restructuring."

The manufacturing PMI's component indexes showed new orders fell to 49.5 last month, down from December's 50.2. Production lost 0.8 points to 51.4, while the index measuring inventory scaled 1.5 points to 44.6, or the third straight month of reduction.

Contrasting the worsening performance in state-owned industrial companies, their private and export-oriented counterparts staged a moderate improvement.

The Caixin China PMI, an similar indicator slated towards private and export-oriented manufacturing companies, landed at 48.4 in January, up slightly from 48.2 in December, according to Caixin magazine and research firm Markit.




 

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