{"id":795021,"date":"2026-07-31T08:05:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T08:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/795021\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T08:05:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T08:05:11","slug":"chinese-manufacturing-slows-in-july-in-first-contraction-in-5-months","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/795021\/","title":{"rendered":"Chinese manufacturing slows in July in first contraction in 5 months"},"content":{"rendered":"

HONG KONG (AP) \u2014 China\u2019s<\/a> factory activity unexpectedly slowed in July, the first such contraction in five months, weighing on the pace of broader growth for the world\u2019s second-largest economy.<\/p>\n

The official manufacturing purchasing managers index, or PMI, fell to 49.2 from 50.3 in June<\/a>, China\u2019s National Bureau of Statistics said Friday, worse than what economists had expected.<\/p>\n

The sub-index on new orders fell to 48.5 in July \u2014 the lowest since 2023 \u2014 from 51.2 in June, while the sub-index for production fell to 49.9 from 51.4.<\/p>\n

PMI readings, based on surveys of factory managers, are measured on a scale of 0 to 100. A reading above 50 indicates an expansion, and below 50 reflects a contraction.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe latest (PMI) reading remains an unpromising start to the first wave of economic data for the second half of the year,\u201d Lynn Song, a chief economist for Greater China at ING Bank, said in a commentary.<\/p>\n

Weakness in domestic goods demand, including in building activity, contributed to the lower PMI figures, according to Capital Economics, while several typhoons that hit China<\/a> in July may have also disrupted manufacturing. <\/p>\n

China\u2019s economy has been under pressure from sluggishness in domestic spending and investment<\/a>, as a yearslong weakness in its massive property sector<\/a> hits consumer confidence. Fierce competition for jobs has left workers worried over spending. <\/p>\n

Robust exports<\/a>, especially in technology-related products such as semiconductors and electric vehicles, have helped boost its overall growth momentum. But those are capital intensive sectors. <\/p>\n

The economy grew at its slowest annual pace<\/a> in more than three years in the April-June quarter, at 4.3%. That fell short of China\u2019s official full-year growth target of 4.5% to 5%<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Countries including the U.S. have also complained about excess industrial capacity<\/a> in China from solar panels to autos and supported by heavy state subsidies. They said that\u2019s resulting in China\u2019s exports surge as its domestic demand slows, with its cheap goods posing a threat to many economies. <\/p>\n

Beijing has hit back at those claims.<\/p>\n

But China\u2019s economic model still favors productivity through its policy preferences, said Gary Ng, a senior economist at French bank Natixis. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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Economists expect China to continue to rely on exports to support its economic growth for the rest of the year.<\/p>\n

Chinese leaders have also pledged to boost domestic consumption, including at a meeting of the ruling Communist Party\u2019s decision-making Politburo on Thursday. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HONG KONG (AP) \u2014 China\u2019s factory activity unexpectedly slowed in July, the first such contraction in five months,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":795022,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[1204,28,144,101,134650,793,2026,3139,6490,965],"class_list":["post-795021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-asia-pacific","tag-business","tag-china","tag-economy","tag-gary-ng","tag-general-news","tag-international-news","tag-international-trade","tag-manufacturing-sector","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=795021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795021\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/795022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=795021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=795021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=795021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}