From the Wall Street Journal:
China’s official PMI, issued by the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing and the National Bureau of Statistics, fell to 52.1 in June, the second straight month in which it has declined, though it was the 16th consecutive month it has been above the expansionary threshold of 50. In May the CFLP PMI was 53.9.
“(The PMI) showed that the manufacturing economy overall is maintaining an upward trend, but the growth rate slowed due to China’s launch of recent macro-economic policies and the slowdown in the pace of the world economic recovery, plus other factors,” the bureau said Thursday.
The HSBC China Manufacturing PMI fell more sharply, to 50.4 in June, from 52.7 in May. June was the third consecutive month in which the HSBC PMI fell from a month earlier.
Economists say the focus in judging the country’s economic outlook in the near term will be on China’s exports, which remain an important driver of domestic growth and confidence in the world’s recovery. China is due to issue June trade data on July 10 and second-quarter gross domestic product data on July 15.
