Only slight economic growth

The Chinese economy has felt the Covid restrictions at the beginning of what is likely to be a difficult 2022: The Purchasing Managers Index for January signaled a decline, but remained just above the 50-point mark where growth is indicated. The country’s statistics office gave it at 50.1 points on Sunday, down from 50.3 in December. This slightly exceeded analysts’ expectations. The value is also significantly better than in another survey of corporate purchasing managers. Most recently, smaller companies in coastal regions, in particular, were surveyed about this. Here, the decline was the sharpest in 23 months.