China’s factory growth dwindles on surging COVID-19 cases

January had seen China’s factory activity advance at the slowest pace in five months. The contraction, which was from a surge of coronavirus infections across the country, still came parallel with the ongoing rebound in the world’s second-largest economy.

The official manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) rendered a 51.3 reading in January. The figure placed lower than the 51.9 reading seen in December, the National Bureau of Statistics said in a statement on Sunday.

While it still placed above the 50 threshold that separates expansion from contraction, it failed to surpass the 51.6 forecast predicted by analysts in a Reuters survey. This could be attributed to an increase in coronavirus infections in January, completely dragging factory activity and the services sector.