China’s manufacturing activity contracts for first time in five months as export demand weakens

China’s factory sector just hit the brakes. The country’s official manufacturing PMI dropped to 49.2 in July, down from 50.3 in June, marking the first contraction in five months and missing economist forecasts of 50.0. Anything below 50 signals shrinking activity. And this wasn’t a gentle miss. It was a five-month low that caught markets off guard, with new orders plunging to 48.5, their weakest reading since 2023. The numbers tell a consistent story The official National Bureau of Statistics data wasn’t an outlier. The private S&P Global/Caixin manufacturing PMI dropped to 49.5 from 50.4 in June, confirming that the slowdown is broad-based rather than a quirk of government methodology. New export orders slipped to 49.6 from 50.1 the prior month. Production itself edged below the expansion line at 49.9, and employment held stubbornly weak at 49.0. The non-manufacturing PMI also fell into contraction territory at 49.0, suggesting the weakness isn’t confined to factories. What’s driving the slowdown The contraction reflects a cocktail of headwinds that have been building for weeks. Domestic demand remains soft, a persistent theme in China’s post-pandemic recovery that has frustr...