By Xinhua,
Beijing : The declining performance of China’s manufacturing sector has raised worries of further economic slowdow.
According to the report of China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing (CFLP) the sector’s monthly purchase management index (PMI), which is a package of indices of economic performance, dropped to 44.6 percent in October, down 6.6 percentage points from the previous month.
A fall below 50 percent in the PMI is generally taken as an alarming sign of slowdown.
According to the CFLP report, all but two of the 11 indices within the PMI pack showed a worrying drop in October, with figures concerning purchase prices and production taking the lead.
Dropping demand, together with the decrease in production, has already affected the country’s employment, according to the PMI report.
The employment index dropped 3.3 percentage points to 47 percent in October, marking the lowest point since 2006. Experts say that the slowing in the growth of the country’s job total is reflected in the employment index.
Sixteen out of 20 industries involved in the PMI calculation reported an employment index below 50 percent. Among them, the index of the labour-intensive textile industry was 47.6 percent, six percentage points lower compared with the same period last year.