Expansion in China’s factory sector hits lowest level in months

INTERNATIONAL DESK: Expansion in China’s factory sector in July hit the lowest level in nearly a year and a half, with a gauge of activity slipping in the latest sign of slackness of the world’s second-largest economy.

China’s official manufacturing purchasing-managers’ index, a gauge of manufacturing activity, dropped to 50.4 in July from 50.9 in June, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Saturday.

The July reading also fell below a median forecast of 50.8 from a Wall Street Journal poll of economists, but still remained above the 50 mark that separates expansion from contraction.

Beneath the headline number, the subindex measuring production declined to 51.0 in July, from 51.9 the previous month as the recent record rainfall in central China and Yangtze River Delta triggered flooding and tangled supply chains. Power shortages in some cities held back output.

The subindex of new export orders fell deeper into contractionary territory to 47.7 in July from 48.1 in June, signaling weakening external demand for Chinese goods as the overseas pandemic situation worsened.

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