China's October Caixin Manufacturing PMI 49.5 (vs. 50.8 expected)

<p>China's October Caixin Manufacturing PMI comes in, back in contraction, at 49.5</p><ul><li>50.8 expected, prior was 50.6</li></ul><p>From the report, in brief:</p><ul><li>first contraction
since July</li><li>slower growth in overall sales</li><li>weak foreign demand</li><li>new export orders shrunk
for four consecutive months</li><li>weaker-than-expected sales and the delayed shipment
of goods led to the strongest rise in inventories of
post-production items since September 2015</li><li>manufacturers trimmed staffing levels for the second
straight month, the rate of job shedding the quickest since
May</li><li>higher prices for raw materials and oil,
pushed the rate of input inflation ticked up to
nine-month high</li></ul><p>—</p><p>China has two primary Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) surveys – the official PMI released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and the Caixin China PMI published by the media company Caixin and research firm Markit / S&amp;P Global.</p><p>We got the official from the NBS yesterday:</p><ul><li><a href="https://www.forexlive.com/news/china-oct-pmis-manufacturing-495-expected-502-non-manufacturing-506-expected-518-20231031/" target="_blank" data-article-link="true">China Oct PMIs: Manufacturing 49.5 (expected 50.2) Non-manufacturing 50.6 (expected 51.8)</a></li></ul><ul><li>The official PMI survey covers large and state-owned companies, while the Caixin PMI survey covers small and medium-sized enterprises. As a result, the Caixin PMI is considered to be a more reliable indicator of the performance of China's private sector.</li><li>Another difference between the two surveys is their methodology. The Caixin PMI survey uses a broader sample of companies than the official survey.</li><li>Despite these differences, the two surveys often provide similar readings on China's manufacturing sector.</li></ul>

This article was written by Eamonn Sheridan at www.forexlive.com.