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CLSA's China PMI edges up in Dec from record low

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-01-02 12:07

The Chinese manufacturing sector continued to deteriorate quickly in December 2008, though the pace eased slightly from the month before, a survey by brokerage CLSA showed on Friday.

Related readings:  China's PMI falls below 40% in November  China's PMI indicates further economic slowdown  October PMI falls to record low of 45.2  China's non-manufacturing PMI climbs to 58.1% in July

CLSA's Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) rose to 41.2, up from the record low of 40.9 plumbed in November.

The output sub-index fell to 38.6, signaling the sharpest contraction in manufacturing production since the survey was launched in April 2004.

"Chinese manufacturing activity was very weak in December. Output contracted at a record pace, employment fell for the fifth month and work in hand declined," Eric Fishwick, head of economic research at CLSA, said in a statement.

"With five back-to-back PMIs signaling contraction, the manufacturing sector, which accounts for 43 percent of the Chinese economy, is close to technical recession," he said.

Factory output grew just 5.4 percent in the year to November, the slowest pace on record, according to official statistics, as overseas demand shrank in the face of the financial crisis and firms used up existing stocks of goods to cut costs.

The December PMI showed that new orders continued to shrink in December, the fifth straight month of contraction. New export orders declined at the second-sharpest pace in the history of the survey.

The PMI, compiled by research firm Markit Economics, is designed to give a timely snapshot of business conditions in the manufacturing sector.

Readings above 50 indicate improving conditions for manufacturers, while those below 50 indicate a deterioration in business conditions.

In December 2007, the PMI stood above that boom-bust line, at 53.3.