China's manufacturing indicator suffers shock decline

The re-emergence of quarantine measures has caused a decline in the official manufacturing indicator in China. The official manufacturing indicator in China unexpectedly declined as quarantine measures had a negative impact on the recovery of the economy. The official manufacturing purchasing managers index (PMI) fell to 49 in July. Economists expected the index to reach 50.3. The index had been 50.2 in June. The official non-manufacturing PMI, which includes the construction and service sectors, was 53.8 in the same period. The expectation for this data was set at 53.9. In June, the non-manufacturing PMI reached 54.7. Values below 50 in the index indicate contraction, while above indicate growth. A decision was made to close down the outer regions of the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the world's first Covid-19 quarantine was experienced. The fact that such a measure was taken for the first time since 2020 emphasized how far the country is from normalization after the pandemic.