China’s manufacturing and non-manufacturing sentiment fell short of expectations in April, indicating a cooling in economic activity in the first month of the second quarter, reported the South China Morning Post.
China’s official non-manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) – a gauge of sentiment in the service and construction sectors – fell to 54.9 in April from 56.3 in March, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Friday. The reading was below the median prediction of a slight fall to 56.1 in a Bloomberg poll of analysts.
“Surveyed companies said that the problems such as chip shortage, clogged international logistics, container shortage and rising freight rates were still serious,” said senior NBS statistician Zhao Qinghe.