China's manufacturing activity contracted in April due to slack global demand and a slow domestic recovery after lifting Covid-related curbs.
The official manufacturing purchasing managers' index -- a key gauge of Chinese factory output -- fell to 49.2 in April from 51.9 in March, and below the 50-point mark that separates expansion and contraction in activity, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed.The drop comes after February recorded the highest reading in more than a decade as factories returned to normal following a surge in Covid cases.
But the world's second-largest economy is also beset by a series of other crises, from a debt-laden property sector to flagging consumer confidence, global inflation, the threat of recession elsewhere, and geopolitical tensions with the United States.
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