China’s producer prices recorded a historic drop in more than four years. This indicated that the country’s manufacturing sector is struggling as the novel coronavirus crisis curbed trade flows and dragged global demand.
The producer price index (PPI) dropped 3.7% in May from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said in a statement on Wednesday. The figure came to be the worst drop since March 2016, beating the 3.3% drop speculated by analysts. This also surpassed the 3.1% decline monitored in April.
“Negative reading for PPI is likely to be a new normal in the foreseeable future,” said Tommy Xie, China economist at OCBC Bank in Singapore.
The coronavirus pandemic has dragged trade to China’s key export markets including the United States and Europe. This has led to a dimmer outlook for manufacturing investment and jobs in the world’s second-biggest economy.
On Friday, the Chinese technology company ByteDance said that it would consider listing its domestic businesses in Hong Kong or Shanghai due to rising Sino-U.S. tensions. The company's standalone listing in Hong Kong or Shanghai might value ...
June had seen Japan’s industrial output breaking its four-month slump. The recuperation could be attributed to a modest recovery seen in broader business and consumer activity after the world’s third-biggest economy suffered from ...
Oil prices fell on Thursday as the rising global coronavirus cases weighed on fuel demand recovery just as OPEC+ producers are set to increase supply. The Brent contract for October slid 0.05%, or 2 cents, at $44.07 per barrel, while the September ...
Samsung Electronics Co Ltd looks forward to the second half of the year as it expects a larger increase in chip demand brought by new smartphone launches. However, the company warned that the coronavirus crisis and trade disputes carry risks. Samsung, ...
Oil prices climbed on Wednesday after U.S. crude inventories fell against analysts’ expectations, prompting a boost in the market amid the coronavirus resurgence. Brent crude futures gained 0.3%, or 14 cents, at $43.36 per barrel. U.S. ...