China’s manufacturing activity in February shrank for a fifth straight month, an official survey showed on Friday, raising pressure on Beijing to roll out more stimulus measures as the parliament prepares for a key annual meeting next week.
The official manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI), compiled by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), fell to 49.1 in February from 49.2 in January with a sizeable drop in the output component. It was below the 50-mark separating growth from contraction and in line with a median forecast of 49.1 in a Reuters poll.
China Policy Research 