China’s manufacturing fell to an 11-month low this month, a disappointing performance that puts pressure on Chinese leaders to reverse a deepening slowdown in the world’s second-largest economy.
The report released by HSBC Corp. on Wednesday comes as expectations mount that Beijing will launch stimulus measures to shore up growth that fell to a two-decade low of 7.5 percent in the latest quarter.
HSBC said the preliminary version of its monthly purchasing managers index declined to 47.7 this month from June’s 48.2 on a 100-point scale on which numbers below 50 show a contraction in activity.
The decline adds to pressure on the labor market and “reinforces the need to introduce additional fine-tuning measures to stabilize growth,” said HSBC economist Hongbin Qu in a statement.
China’s top economic official, Premier Li Keqiang, was quoted by newspapers Tuesday as saying the “bottom line” for growth was 7 percent. Financial markets rose on expectations that meant Beijing might take steps to reverse two straight quarters of declining growth.