China's manufacturing PMI fell to 49 in July

In July, the China Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) for the country's manufacturing retreated from a two-month rise of 1.2 percentage points from the previous month to 49, or fell again after breaking the 50 threshold in June. New issue of China National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

July's PMI was slowed down mainly by the fact that July is a traditional off-season for manufacturing, as well as inefficiencies in energy-intensive sectors and weak demand for manufactured goods, said Zhao Qinghe, senior statistician at the NBS. cited highlight in the report.

In particular, PMIs for oil, coal and other fuels, and smelting and ferrous metals, all of which remained in the contracting zone and were noticeably lower than PMIs for manufacturing, which also partly led to a drop in overall PMI, – Zhao noticed. However, in 10 of the 21 sectors surveyed, the PMI was still above 50 last month.

Both supply and demand in manufacturing weakened after strong gains in June, with the sub-index for manufacturing down 3 percentage points from the previous month to 49.8 and the sub-index for new orders falling to 48.5 after falling 1 .9 percent per month. points.

Meanwhile, the NBS survey also found that more than half of the industrial firms surveyed saw sluggish demand from buyers last month, with a share of the total posting a fourth consecutive month of growth. “These enterprises are facing great difficulties due to low demand,” Zhao said.

The price indexes for the purchase of raw materials and finished goods at own expense continued to decline last month, with the former falling by 11.6 percentage points from the previous month to 40.4, and the latter by 6.2 percentage points from from the previous month to 40.1, reflecting fluctuations in wholesale prices for commodities, including oil, coal and iron ore.

In particular, according to Zhao, the lowest price indices among all surveyed sectors were noted in the sectors of smelting and production of ferrous metals in China.

As a result, the Industry Purchasing Volume sub-index declined 2.2 percentage points mom to 48.9 as some businesses became less interested in purchasing and instead opted to stay on the sidelines, noting price volatility.

With many Chinese manufacturers facing difficult internal and external challenges, the manufacturing and business sentiment index was down 3.2 percentage points month-on-month at 52, or still in the upside but for the manufacturing and manufacturing sectors. production of ferrous metals remained lower. threshold 50 for the fourth month.

In July, China's non-manufacturing PMI fell 0.9 percentage points mom to 53.8 after a two-month rise, while the country's construction business sub-index rose 2.6 percentage points mom up to 53.8. 59.2, indicating a slight improvement in the sector, according to NBS.