September marks weak growth for China’s manufacturing sector

BEIJING - The National Bureau of Statistics has released China’s official Purchasing Managers Index for September, which comes in at 51.1, the same as in August – which recorded a 0.6% drop from July. September’s reading shows that new orders fell by 0.3% from the month before, while input prices slipped 1.9 points to 47.7.

The NBS released the data one day after China cut mortgage rates for the first time since the 2008 global financial crisis in order to boost its economy. Many believe the main reasons for the Chinese economy’s recent economic slowdown are related to sluggish domestic demand and a cooling property market. To the surprise of many, both China’s factory output and a broad measure of credit supply fell to six-year lows during the summer. www.webershandwick.cn (ATI).