China official PMI weakens

Over the weekend we got the official Chinese PMI and it weakened slightly to a headline score of 50 from 50.2. The internals were all weaker as well with both new orders and new export orders below 50:

It’s not disastrous but given the amount of stimulus we’ve seen it’s not impressive, either. Manufacturing has been a slouching zombie around zero all year, an unprecedented situation given its history is to be either falling or rising.

In better news, the non-manufacturing PMI was a bit better edging up to 53.9 from 53.8. The construction sub-sector was still expanding strongly at 60.1 easing back from 62.1 in June, showing stimulus was still keeping building moving if at an ever slowing pace.

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About the author

David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.