Heavier than expected
Sentiment in China’s industry is gloomy
In China, the mood among large and state-related companies deteriorated even more in December than experts had expected. The index value determined for the mood of purchasing managers in the manufacturing sector fell by one point to 47.0 points.
A woman at a garment factory in Human, east China’s Shandong Province. (archive image)
This emerged from a statement published over the weekend by the national statistics agency. Analysts had only expected a drop to 47.8 points. The value for service providers fell by 5.1 points to 41.6 points. Economists had expected 45.0 points here.
The background to the development is likely to be the fear of possible consequences of the Chinese government’s new corona policy. This had recently reversed itself after, unlike almost all other countries, it initially did not relax its strict zero-Covid policy. However, the number of infections in the country is now increasing rapidly.
Against this background, Chinese President Xi Jinping called on his compatriots to persevere. The pandemic has entered a “new phase”. But perseverance and solidarity would ultimately lead to victory, said the state and party leader on Saturday in his New Year’s speech.
The about-face in corona policy was justified by the fact that infections with the new Omikron variants were no longer so difficult. But experts see the reason above all in the fact that the strict measures could no longer be maintained in view of the explosive spread. The rigorous restrictions had also placed an increasing burden on the second largest economy.
(SDA)