Manufacturing activity in China slipped in April, serving draconian lockdowns to stop the wave of Covid-19 and slipping to the lowest level since February 2020, when the country was hit by the new coronavirus epidemic that later became a pandemic.
The official manufacturing PMI index, in fact, stopped at 47.4 against 49.5 in March and below market expectations of 48.0. According to data from the National Statistical Office, this is the most marked slowdown since February 2020, when the containment lockdowns against the virus led to the blocking of production and the disruption of the supply chain.
The manufacturing activity is suffering from the worst wave of Covid in the last two years and the ‘zero tolerance’ policy pursued by the Chinese authorities to keep the virus under control, which however did not give positive results with the Omicron variant, seriously putting growth at risk economic.
The Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) contracted for the second month in a row and fell below 50 due to a “decline in production and demand that has widened,” said the spokesperson for the National Statistics Office. , Zhao Qinghe. The production sub-index fell in April to 44.4 (from 49.5 in March), that of new orders to 42.6% (from 48.8) and that of new orders for exports to 41.6 ( from 47.2).
The non-manufacturing PMI was also bad, falling to 41.9 from 48.4 and for the second consecutive month of decline, with the anti-Covid squeeze that blocked travel and travel and also put pressure on the capital Beijing, at risk of lockdown.
The data, closely monitored by the Communist leadership, arrived as Beijing is implementing a zero-Covid strategy that involves eliminating outbreaks as they emerge through targeted blockades and mass testing.
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