China's manufacturing and services sectors weakened the most since early 2020 despite the abrupt abandonment of zero Covid policy in December amid public resistance, as the number of infections rise that prompted several countries to raise alerts and, bring back testing and protective measures. The official manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index declined to 47.0 in December from 48.0 in the previous month, survey data published by the National Bureau of Statistics showed over the weekend. A score below 50.0 indicates contraction in the sector.
The production sub-index weakened by 3.2 percentage points to 44.6 in December. Demand also waned towards the end of the year, with the new orders index easing to 43.9.
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May 15, 2026 15:25 ET Apart from the confirmation of Kevin Warsh as the next Fed chair, the main news on the economics front this week included key price data from the U.S. and the first quarter economic growth figures from major economies. Both consumer prices and producer costs have started to reflect the effect of supply shocks due to the Middle East conflict. In Europe, GDP data was in focus, while inflation data from China dominated the news flow in Asia.