Early alternative economic indicators including Baidu’s purchasing managers index forecast and the MNI China Business Sentiment Indicator have shown signs of improvement at smaller firms, Bloomberg reported. The slight improvements in those indices follow the suspension of the China Minxin purchasing managers index for readjustment and permanent discontinuation of Caixin’s preliminary monthly readings, which leave observers with few options for an advance read on the economy. The mildly sunny estimates also contrasted with the recently published China Beige Book survey, which found capital expenditure, borrowing, hiring, profits, prices, output, volumes and sales revenue in China had weakened from the previous quarter.
Categories