China PMI manufacturing rose 0.1 to 49.5 in January, up from 49.4 and beat expectation of 49.3. It’s, nonetheless, the second month of contractionary reading. It’s noted in the release that the continuous decline since August last year was finally broken, showing signs of stabilization. Slight increase in export orders also suggested that sharp decline export growth since November was slowing down.
However, decline in new orders and backlog orders reflected downward pressure on demand. Overall, “the current economy has signs of stabilization, but the foundation still needs to be consolidated. Also from China PMI non-manufacturing rose to 54.7, up from 53.8, and beat expectation of 53.9. Full release in simplified Chinese.
Also release in Asia session, Japan industrial production dropped -0.1% mom in December versus expectation of -0.5% mom. Housing starts rose 2.1% yoy in December, matched expectation. Australia import prices rose 0.5% qoq in Q4, above expectations of 0.3% qoq. UK Gfk consumer confidence was unchanged at -14 in January.
