Manufacturing in China is slumping despite boost from trade truce with US

Stronger demand overseas fails to reverse a deepening slowdown in the economy

- 

China's manufacturing activity contracted in November, according to official and private surveys, as stronger demand overseas after a trade truce with the US failed to reverse a deepening slowdown in the economy.

Despite a surge in new export orders, the RatingDog China manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI) unexpectedly slumped to 49.9, according to a statement released on Dec 1, falling below the 50 mark that separates growth and contraction for the first time in four months.

A day earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said the official manufacturing PMI remained in contraction for an eighth month, improving slightly but extending its streak of declines to a record. Among the major components, the new export order sub-index rose the most.

Offsetting the pull of improving sales abroad, stalling demand at home and distress in the housing market are pushing the economy towards its slowest expansion since the final three months of 2022, when the nation was nearing the end of its zero-Covid lockdowns. The non-manufacturing measure of activity in construction and services contracted in November for the first time in nearly three years, according to the NBS.