China’s manufacturing ‘limping along’ as activity contracts for third straight month in June
- China’s official manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose to 49 in June from 48.8 in May, while the non-manufacturing gauge fell to 53.2 from 54.5
- China’s economic recovery has been hit by rising youth unemployment as well as disappointing retail sales and industrial production
China’s factory activity picked up in June but remained in contraction for a third straight month amid an overall slowing economic recovery, while expansion in the non-manufacturing sectors slowed this month, data released on Friday showed.
Nomura analysts said the slight rebound in the official manufacturing PMI was concentrated in production, with the new orders subindex also edging up.
The subindex to gauge new orders rose to 48.6 from 48.3 in May, but the new export orders subindex slipped to a five-month low of 46.4, with three of the five subindices that directly feed into the headline manufacturing PMI calculation edging down in June.
At least things aren’t getting noticeably worse
“Apart from a short-lived bounce in the manufacturing sector after the zero-Covid measures were shelved in early December 2022, China’s manufacturing has been limping along,” said Robert Carnell, regional head of research for Asia-Pacific at ING.