China’s factory sector growth slows to weakest pace in seven months
Beijing — China’s factory sector lost momentum in April, with growth slowing to its weakest pace in seven months as domestic and export demand faltered and commodity prices fell, a private survey showed on Tuesday. The findings echoed those in official manufacturing and service sector data on Sunday, reinforcing views that China’s economic growth remains solid, but is beginning to moderate after a surprisingly strong start to the year. The Caixin/Markit Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ index fell to 50.3 in April, missing economist forecasts’ of 51.0 and a significant decline from March’s 51.2. However, the index remained above the 50.0 mark which separates expansion from contraction on a monthly basis — but only just, and grew at its slowest pace since September 2016. The private factory survey suggested growth faded at a sharper pace than the official reading, but economists largely attributed the softening in both cases to a pull-back in global commodity prices and signs of mod...
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