The Caixin China Composite PMI™ data (which covers both manufacturing and services) indicated that business activity across China continued to expand at a marginal pace at the start of the third quarter. This was highlighted by the Composite Output Index posting 50.9 in July, up slightly from 50.6 in June.
The uptick in the headline index was helped by the stabilisation of manufacturing output following a decline in June. Meanwhile, business activity at services companies expanded at only a modest rate in July. This was shown by the seasonally adjusted Chinese Services Business Activity Index slipping from 52.0 in June to 51.6, which was the lowest index reading for five months.
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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.
