Coronavirus: China’s factory activity plunges to all-time low, worse than global financial crisis, February data show
- China’s official manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) dropped to 35.7 in February from 50.0 in January, below the 38.8 figure reported in November 2008
- The non-manufacturing PMI – a gauge of sentiment in the services and construction sectors – also dropped to 29.6 from 54.1 in January, the lowest since November 2011
Chinese manufacturing activity plunged to an all-time low in February, with the first official data published amid the coronavirus outbreak confirming fears over the impact on the Chinese economy.
Analysts polled by Bloomberg had expected the February reading to come in at 45.0. A reading below 50 indicates a contraction in sector activity. The farther the figure is below 50, the greater the contraction in activity.
China’s official manufacturing PMI dropped to 38.8 in November 2008 at the start of the global financial crisis.
The economy experienced huge negative growth in February, the trough has been reached, the duration of the impact should be monitored in the next step
“The economy experienced huge negative growth in February, the trough has been reached, the duration of the impact should be monitored in the next step. It is the time to call for new infrastructure to turn the crisis into an opportunity,” Ren Zeping, chief economist at Evergrande Research Institute, said on Weibo.