Chinese factories are losing export orders and laying off workers as the trade war with the United States exacerbates an economic slowdown that started earlier this year.
Growth in output from China’s huge manufacturing sector slumped last month to its lowest level in more than a year, according to the results of a survey of hundreds of companies published Monday.
The latest purchasing managers index survey, conducted by media group Caixin and research firm Markit, fell to 50.6 in August from 50.8 in July. Any reading above 50 indicates growth, but August showed the slowest rate of acceleration in 14 months.
China is one of the world’s fastest growing major economies, but it has begun to slow down this year, and signs of further weakness are spreading.
“China’s economy is now facing relatively obvious downward pressure,” Zhengsheng Zhong, a senior analyst at research firm CEBM Group, said in comments accompanying the release of the survey Monday.
Chinese factories’ export orders slumped for the fifth month in row, according to the data. The decline in orders has coincided with the escalation of trade hostilities with the United States, which began in earnest in late March.
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