China factories recover slowly from coronavirus but export orders keep shrinking
- Official manufacturing purchasing managers’ index dropped to 50.6 in May from 50.8 in April
- Non-manufacturing purchasing managers’ index rose to 53.6 in May from 53.2 in April
China’s factory activity fell back slightly in May, highlighting the challenges it faces while the recovery from coronavirus lockdown is continuing, according to new data released on Sunday.
Export orders for Chinese manufacturers kept shrinking and the data suggests factory jobs may also continue to fall.
While it fell below the median reading in a Bloomberg survey, the May figure was still above 50, indicating an expansion in activity – the further the index is above 50, the faster the expansion.
Total new orders continued to expand, with the index rising to 50.9 in May, up 0.7 percentage points from the previous month.
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What is the purchasing managers' index (PMI)?
But the improvement was due almost entirely to domestic demand, with new export orders continuing to decline sharply.