Manufacturing sector is shrinking

China’s manufacturing sector produced less in September. As the Beijing statistics office announced on Thursday, the official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) for the manufacturing sector fell to 49.6 points. In August, the economic indicator was still at 50.1 points. While a reading above 50 indicates growth in manufacturing, a reading below is considered a contraction in economic activity. This marks the end of China’s 18-month growth in the sector, which began after the Covid pandemic. Zhao Qinghe, an economist at the National Bureau of Statistics, attributed this to the low sentiment among companies in power-demanding sectors such as oil, coal, rubber, and plastics, according to the South China Morning Post.