The MNI Flash Business Sentiment Indicator for February is on a total tear up 6.63 points to 61.79.
This was the highest reading in two years for the MNI. However, it is not seasonally adjusted so I would caution against taking the headline number at face value. We know Chinese New Year swapped months this year which could influence the result.
Here is an old chart from Sober Look to give a rough guide:
Corroboration for the MNI can be found in the Conference Board Leading Index for January which is also out today and returned to better growth than December climbing 1%.
In case you’re wondering, all of these rising indicators are quite consistent with China growing in the low to mid 8% range in the first half, which is where the new survey of economists by Bloomie sees it.
Yay!
