China's factory activity contracts for first time in 9 months, Caixin PMI shows
BEIJING, Aug 1 (Reuters) -China's manufacturing activity in July shrank for the first time in nine months as new orders declined, a private sector survey showed on Thursday, boding ill for the country's growth momentum in the second half of 2024.
The Caixin/S&P Global manufacturing PMI fell to 49.8 in July from 51.8 the previous month, the lowest reading since October last year and missing analysts' forecasts of 51.5.
The reading, which mostly covers smaller, export-oriented firms, is in line with an official PMI survey on Wednesday showing manufacturing activity slipped to a five-month low.
According to the Caixin survey, the expansion in manufacturing output was the slowest in nine months, which was attributed to the first fall in new orders in a year.
Participants blamed subdued demand and client budget reductions for the poor performance.
Sub-sector data indicated that the renewed drop in new orders predominantly affected investment and intermediate goods, while the consumer goods sector saw slight expansion in July.
To boost consumption, China announced last week that around 150 billion yuan ($20.74 billion) out of 1 trillion yuan ultra-long special treasury bonds issuance will subsidise replacements of old appliances, cars, electronic bicycles and other goods.
Despite the overall tepid new orders, export orders continued to increase in July, though the rate of growth slowed slightly from June.
"The most prominent issues are still insufficient effective domestic demand and weak market optimism," said Wang Zhe, economist at Caixin Insight Group, calling for policy efforts to stabilise growth.
The world's second-largest economy missed growth forecasts in the second quarter and faces deflationary pressures, with retail sales and imports significantly underperforming industrial output and exports.
China's foreign trade growth in the second half of the year faces numerous obstacles, including high geopolitical risks, supply chain disruptions due to protectionism, shipping congestion and escalating shipping fees, Lv Daliang, customs spokesperson, said on Tuesday.
Purchasing activity declined for the first time since October 2023, leading to a renewed depletion of purchase stocks, the Caixin survey showed.
On the other hand, stocks of finished goods rose again, though this was partially driven by delays in outbound shipments.
Some Chinese manufacturers lowered selling prices to support sales amid increased competition, while input cost inflation eased.
Employment was stable as the rate of job losses was unchanged from June, staying in contractionary territory for 11 months.
Producers remained optimistic about output in the coming year, with the level of optimism improving from June.
($1 = 7.2340 Chinese yuan)
Reporting by Ellen Zhang and Ryan Woo; Editing by Jacqueline Wong
免責聲明: XM Group提供線上交易平台的登入和執行服務，允許個人查看和/或使用網站所提供的內容，但不進行任何更改或擴展其服務和訪問權限，並受以下條款與條例約束：（i）條款與條例；（ii）風險提示；（iii）完全免責聲明。網站內部所提供的所有資訊，僅限於一般資訊用途。請注意，我們所有的線上交易平台內容並不構成，也不被視為進入金融市場交易的邀約或邀請 。金融市場交易會對您的投資帶來重大風險。
所有缐上交易平台所發佈的資料，僅適用於教育/資訊類用途，不包含也不應被視爲適用於金融、投資稅或交易相關諮詢和建議，或是交易價格紀錄，或是任何金融商品或非應邀途徑的金融相關優惠的交易邀約或邀請。
本網站的所有XM和第三方所提供的内容，包括意見、新聞、研究、分析、價格其他資訊和第三方網站鏈接，皆爲‘按原狀’，並作爲一般市場評論所提供，而非投資建議。請理解和接受，所有被歸類為投資研究範圍的相關内容，並非爲了促進投資研究獨立性，而根據法律要求所編寫，而是被視爲符合營銷傳播相關法律與法規所編寫的内容。請確保您已詳讀並完全理解我們的非獨立投資研究提示和風險提示資訊，相關詳情請點擊 這裡查看。
