China to avoid a hard landing
CHINA got some positive news yesterday after figures released beat expectations of a worrying August performance.
The popular HSBC Purchasing Managers Index, a wide survey of firms, performed much better than expected by rising from 50.2 in August to 50.5 in September as opposed to the Bloomberg consensus of 50.0.
The improvements were largely driven by stronger foreign demand, with the new export orders component surging to its highest level in over four years.
“The increase in the flash PMI for China has helped to assuage fears about a hard landing. However, the index is still low by historical standards and the fall in the Eurozone’s flash PMI highlights the risk to commodity demand from Europe.” said Thomas Pugh, an economist at Capital Economics.
“At a time when investors are looking to China to give global growth a push the news is welcome, but with the data focused on smaller, private companies, all eyes will be on the official PMI reading, due 1 October, which focuses more on large, state-owned companies” said Michael van Dulken, economist at Accendo Markets.