Large firms have seen exports slump in recent months at a rate not seen since the first half of 2009, at the height of the global financial crisis.
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Despite a pickup, the Caixin manufacturing PMI is still below the 50 watershed.
The index has hovered around the same level for the past four months. The 50-point mark separates expansion from contraction. It was the second monthly improvement in a row.
The official non-manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) rose to 53.6 in November from the previous month’s 53.1.
Caixin’s chief economist He Fan said the result was partly driven by the stabilisation of output volumes, which had been falling for six months.
China’s all-important factory sector is losing steam, with manufacturing activity slumping to a three-year low in November, as concerns grow over the economy. “Overall, the economy is still on track to become more stable”. And Li-gang Liu and Louis Lam, Greater China economists at ANZ Bank in Hong Kong, said in a report that falling prices would hit companies’ profits.
The CSO reported on 4 Nov that on an annual basis production for September 2015 increased by 20.1% when compared with September 2014.
“The slowdown in growth combined with weak inflationary pressures support further rate cuts”, De Lima added.
Away from China’s factories, an official gauge of non-manufacturing activity for November stood at 53.6, showing expansion.
This was its fifth consecutive month of contraction, as both domestic and export orders as well as production output and inventory fell.
Following a marginal increase in the prior month, manufacturing employment in India was broadly unchanged in November. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, he established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. So called “old growth drivers” of the Chinese economy, such as manufacturing and investment, in particular, continue to struggle.
The new sales order index saw the sharpest decline of the major sub-components in November, followed closely by the business activity index.
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Some analysts expect China’s economy will bottom out in the fourth quarter as a burst of stimulus measures rolled out by Beijing gradually takes effect, but many remain wary about the outlook.
