Original title: China’s manufacturing PMI fell in December, and most companies believe that the market is expected to pick up
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 purchasing managers index (PMI) was 47.0%, a decrease of 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 is expected to pick up later.
Zhao Qinghe, a senior statistician at the Service Industry Survey Center of the National Bureau of Statistics, said when interpreting the current data that the epidemic has had a major impact on the production and demand of enterprises, the arrival of personnel, and logistics and distribution.
In December, 56.3% of the surveyed manufacturing companies reported that they were greatly affected by the epidemic, which was 15.5 percentage points higher than the previous month. The production index and new order index were 44.6% and 43.9% respectively, 3.2 and 2.5 percentage points lower than the previous month. Manufacturing production activities continued to slow down, and product orders declined. At the same time, the supplier delivery time index dropped to 40.1%. Some surveyed companies reported that due to the impact of the epidemic, the logistics and transportation manpower was insufficient, and the delivery time had been extended.
The price index rebounded in the month. The purchase price index of major raw materials was 51.6%, 0.9 percentage points higher than that of the previous month, and the overall level of raw material purchase prices in the manufacturing industry has risen; the ex-factory price index was 49.0%, 1.6 percentage points higher than that of the previous month, and the overall level of ex-factory prices of products has dropped narrowed.
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 pulled down by 0.5 percentage points. At the same time, the proportion of enterprises reflecting insufficient labor supply was 6.5 percentage points higher than that of the previous month.
It is worth mentioning that although the manufacturing PMI fell in December, the PMIs of industries closely related to people’s livelihood such as agricultural and sideline food processing and medicine continued to remain in the expansion range, providing a strong guarantee for economic and social recovery and development.
The data disclosed on the same day also showed that in December, China’s non-manufacturing business activity index was 41.6%, a decrease of 5.1 percentage points from the previous month. The service industry business activity index dropped to 39.4%, 5.7 percentage points lower than the previous month.
In that month, the construction industry business activity index was 54.4%, which continued to be higher than the critical point. Among them, the business activity index of the civil engineering construction industry 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 promoting the construction of major projects, civil engineering construction enterprises maintain a relatively fast construction progress.
