Economic activity indicators for March in China continue to sound alarming.
Following the official manufacturing purchasing managers index (PMI) data, the Caixin PMI also came into contraction territory.
Caixin PMI dropped to 48.1 in March. In February, the index had taken the value of 50.4. The expectation of economists participating in the Bloomberg survey was that the index would decline to 49.9.
Realization in March marked the lowest level since February 2020. However, it was also observed that the index remained below the official PMI.
Official PMI also pointed to contraction
The official purchasing managers index in the country was recorded as 49.5 in March. Thus, for the first time in 5 months, a contraction sign was observed in the indicator.
The service sector purchasing managers index also gave similar signals. The index took the value of 48.4 in March.
In March, new measures regarding Kovid-19 cases were implemented in the country, and the city of Shenzhen, one of the country's most important industrial zones and home to technology companies such as Foxconn, Huawei and Tencent, with a population of 17.5 million, was quarantined due to rising cases.
Comments
No comment yet.