Chinese language manufacturing exercise contracts in signal of economic system dropping steam

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Good morning. China’s manufacturing exercise contracted for the second month in November, indicating weakening momentum on the planet’s second-largest economic system.

The nation’s official manufacturing buying managers’ index got here in at 49.4 this month, decrease than a median forecast of 49.8 in a Bloomberg ballot and barely under a studying of 49.5 in October. A studying under 50 marks contraction from the earlier month.

The non-manufacturing PMI got here in at 50.2, remaining in optimistic territory however marking the bottom studying since China was swept by Covid final December. The companies business exercise part of non-manufacturing PMI registered a contraction at 49.3 factors in contrast with a studying of fifty.1 the earlier month.

The declines adopted higher than anticipated gross home product progress of 4.9 per cent yr on yr within the third quarter, which had raised hopes that China’s economic system, gradual to recuperate after the pandemic, was turning a nook.

“That’s a little bit of a setback I feel due to course the companies sector — significantly personal consumption demand, companies demand — was speculated to be a pillar of power and misplaced momentum into November,” stated Frederic Neumann, chief Asia economist at HSBC. Right here’s why analysts expect China’s economic system to “dip” once more on the finish of this yr and into 2024.

• Extra financial information: Inflation within the eurozone has fallen way over anticipated to 2.4 per cent in November, the slowest annual tempo since July 2021

Right here’s what else I’m holding tabs on right now:

• COP28: The UN’s annual local weather summit continues in Dubai, the place host nation the United Arab Emirates is getting ready to launch a $30bn climate-related funding fund with BlackRock, TPG and Brookfield.

• Financial information: S&P International/Cips remaining November manufacturing buying managers’ index is due for the EU, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, UK and US.

• G20: Brazil takes over the rotating one-year presidency of the group of main economies.

How nicely did you retain up with the information this week? Take our quiz.

5 extra high tales

1. Hamas yesterday launched six girls and two kids held in Gaza as the fragile trade of Palestinian prisoners for Israeli hostages entered its sixth day. In return, Israel was to free one other 30 Palestinian girls and youngsters from its prisons, in line with the Qatari international ministry. US secretary of state Antony Blinken met Israeli and Palestinian leaders to push for an extension of the short-term ceasefire, which is ready to run out right now at 7am native time.

2. PwC has been fined $7mn after a US regulator discovered that greater than 1,000 of its audit workers in China and Hong Kong cheated on inner coaching exams designed to get them up to the mark on US requirements. The Public Firm Accounting Oversight Board stated that PwC workers improperly shared take a look at solutions over the course of no less than two years as much as 2020.

3. Activist investor Nelson Peltz has launched a second proxy battle at Walt Disney after the leisure group rejected his push to affix the board. Folks accustomed to Peltz’s pondering stated his foremost points have been with Disney’s share worth and its margins in addition to the board’s determination in July to increase chief govt Bob Iger’s tenure as chief by two years to the top of 2026.

4. Opec+ members have agreed to make extra voluntary cuts to grease manufacturing in 2024 in an more and more fraught try and bolster the market. Crude costs fell after the bizarre transfer owing to indicators of ongoing strains within the group.

5. The Taliban have carried out tons of of floggings over the previous yr because the hardline regime consolidates its management over Afghanistan. The Taliban-controlled Supreme Courtroom has imposed the punishment for crimes starting from adultery and sodomy to theft. All have been flogged besides for 2 individuals who have been executed for homicide, in line with an evaluation by open-source undertaking Afghan Witness shared with the FT.

The Large Learn

In late 2020, Huawei was preventing for its survival after the Trump administration hit the Chinese language cell phone maker with crippling sanctions, slicing it off from international semiconductor provide chains. But practically three years later, Huawei unveiled a brand new gadget, the Mate 60 collection cellphone, powered by a cutting-edge chip made in China. Interviews with dozens of business insiders provide the closest look but at how Huawei was capable of overcome sanctions and shock Washington.

We’re additionally studying . . . 

Chart of the day

New members of the worldwide super-rich gained extra of their belongings by inheritance than by wealth creation this yr — the primary time that this has been recorded by Swiss financial institution UBS in its 9 years of surveying international billionaires. The research discovered that the variety of billionaires worldwide rose from 2,376 to 2,544 within the 12 months to April 2023.

Take a break from the information

Affect — the ability to influence, advocate for change and picture higher methods of doing issues — takes many varieties. Nowhere is that this extra clear than within the FT’s 25 most influential girls of the yr. Meet the girls on the helm of the world’s most profound transformations.

Further contributions from Grace Ramos and Euan Healy