A chart shows changes in the nation’s manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) from 2012 to May this year. Last month’s figure was the slowest expansion since July 2020, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research said. Lockdowns in China’s key industrial and commercial cities hampered economic activity and intensified supply chain disruptions, local companies have said. The manufacturing industry would experience uneven results in the second half of the year, CIER vice president Wang Jiann-chyuan (王健全) said. Non-manufacturing companies generally experienced a downturn in business as most Taiwanese have voluntarily stayed home since April to avoid contracting COVID-19, CIER said.
