China’s manufacturing activity contracted for a second straight month in September, according to official data released on Monday, falling short of expectations for expansion.
The government’s purchasing managers’ index (PMI) stood at 49.8 in September, a modest improvement on 49.2 in August, according to the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing and the National Bureau of Statistics.
A PMI reading above 50 indicates expansion, while one below that mark points to contraction. The result came in below the median forecast of 50.2 in a survey of 11 economists by Dow Jones Newswires.
China’s manufacturing sector has struggled as the country’s once red-hot economy negotiates a slump that began last year.
Both Europe and the United States are key Chinese trading partners and global woes surrounding the euro-zone debt crisis, plus a weak US economy still suffering from lacklustre growth and high unemployment, have been a drag on exports.
China’s economic growth slowed to 7.6 per cent in the three months through June from the same period the year before, the poorest result in three years since the height of the global financial crisis.
Various data for the third quarter, which ended on Sunday, has been broadly disappointing, fostering expectations economic growth may have slowed further during the period.
