The flash Caixin/Markit China Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) dropped to 48.2, the lowest reading since last April and a fifth straight month below 50, the level separating contraction from expansion.
The reading comes below market consensus of 49.7, and compares with last month’s flash reading of 49.6.
"Today’s PMI reading suggests that the improvement in momentum seen at the end of the second quarter may not have extended into the start of the third quarter and that downside risks to growth remain," says a research report by Julian Evans-Pritchard, a China economist at Capital Economics.
China’s Caixin Media Co., Ltd. is publishing the index for the first time this month after replacing HSBC as the sponsor of the survey.
