Rising COVID-19 cases in tens of cities over the summer also disrupted the manufacturing and the services sectors, though the latter is starting to bounce back as the outbreaks receded. “In September, due to factors such as low volumes of business at high energy-consuming industries, the manufacturing PMI fell below the critical point,” said Zhao Qinghe, a senior NBS statistician, in an accompanying statement. A separate private survey also released on Thursday that focuses on small and export-oriented businesses showed that factory activity in September neither expanded nor contracted. Last month, COVID-19-related restrictions drove services sector activity into sharp contraction for the first time since the height of the pandemic last year. The official September composite PMI, which includes both manufacturing and services activity, stood at 51.7 versus 48.9 in August.

Source: MetroXpress September 30, 2021 01:18 UTC