Original title: China’s manufacturing PMI fell in December and most companies believe the market should recover
China News Agency, Beijing, December 31 (Reporter Wang Enbo) The National Bureau of Statistics of China announced on December 31 that in December 2022, China’s manufacturing output purchasing managers index (PMI) was 47.0 %, down 1.0 percentage points from the previous month. Most companies in the survey believe that with the gradual improvement of the epidemic situation, the market trend should recover later.
Zhao Qinghe, a senior statistician at the Service Industry Survey Center of the National Bureau of Statistics, said, interpreting the current data, that the epidemic had a major impact on enterprises’ production and demand, personnel arrival, on logistics and distribution.
In December, 56.3% of the manufacturing companies surveyed reported that they had been severely affected by the epidemic, an increase of 15.5 percentage points from the previous month. The production index and the new orders index were 44.6% and 43.9%, respectively, down by 3.2 and 2.5 percentage points compared to the previous month. Manufacturing activity continued to slow down and product orders declined. At the same time, the supplier delivery time index fell to 40.1%. Some companies surveyed reported that due to the impact of the epidemic, the logistics and transportation workforce was insufficient, and the delivery time was shortened. prolonged.
The price index rebounded in the month. The purchase price index of major raw materials was 51.6%, 0.9 percentage points higher than the previous month, and the overall purchase price level of raw materials in the manufacturing industry increased ; the ex-factory price index was 49.0%, 1.6 percentage points higher than the previous month, and the overall ex-factory price level of products fell narrow.
Affected by the short-term impact of the epidemic, the employee attendance rate of manufacturing enterprises is obviously insufficient. The employment index fell to 44.8%, 2.6 percentage points lower than last month, and this month’s manufacturing PMI was reduced by 0.5 percentage points. At the same time, the percentage of firms reflecting a shortage of labor supply was 6.5 percentage points higher than in the previous month.
It is worth mentioning that, although the manufacturing PMI declined in December, the PMI of industries closely related to people’s livelihoods, such as agriculture and secondary food processing and medicine, continued to remain in the expansion range, providing a strong guarantee for economic and social recovery and development.
Data released on the same day also showed that China’s non-manufacturing business activity index was 41.6% in December, down 5.1 percentage points from the previous month. The business activity index of the service sector fell to 39.4%, 5.7 percentage points less than the previous month.
In that month, the business activity index of the construction sector was 54.4%, which continued to be above the critical point. Among them, the civil engineering construction industry business activity index was 57.1%, which has been in a relatively high economic range for 11 consecutive months, indicating that driven by various policies and measures such as the promotion of major construction projects, civil engineering construction companies have maintained a relatively fast construction progress.
