AFP, Beijing :
Activity in China’s vast manufacturing sector shrank in October for the third straight month, officials said Sunday, fuelling fears that growth in the world’s second largest economy is slowing faster than policymakers admit.
The Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), tracking activity in the factory and workshop sector, was unchanged from the previous month at 49.8, the state statistics office said.
A PMI figure above 50 signals expanding activity while anything below indicates shrinkage.
The economy grew at 6.9 percent between July and September this year, according to official figures, the slowest pace since the aftermath of the global financial crisis in 2009.
But many analysts believe China’s actual growth is significantly lower, pointing to weakness in trade data and to alternative indicators such as the PMI.
Beijing says growth will slow as the economy transitions from reliance on investment and exports towards consumption, but it will avoid a “hard landing”.
The government has taken a series of measures to stimulate growth. On October 23 it abolished the official cap on interest rates for savers and cut interest rates by 0.25 percent-the sixth reduction in a year.
Activity in China’s vast manufacturing sector shrank in October for the third straight month, officials said Sunday, fuelling fears that growth in the world’s second largest economy is slowing faster than policymakers admit.
The Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), tracking activity in the factory and workshop sector, was unchanged from the previous month at 49.8, the state statistics office said.
A PMI figure above 50 signals expanding activity while anything below indicates shrinkage.
The economy grew at 6.9 percent between July and September this year, according to official figures, the slowest pace since the aftermath of the global financial crisis in 2009.
But many analysts believe China’s actual growth is significantly lower, pointing to weakness in trade data and to alternative indicators such as the PMI.
Beijing says growth will slow as the economy transitions from reliance on investment and exports towards consumption, but it will avoid a “hard landing”.
The government has taken a series of measures to stimulate growth. On October 23 it abolished the official cap on interest rates for savers and cut interest rates by 0.25 percent-the sixth reduction in a year.
