Business sentiment among Chinese purchasing managers dropped to a six-month low in January, according to preliminary survey findings released on Thursday.
The flash purchasing managers’ index by financial services company HSBC showed a reading of 49.6, down from 50.5 in December and the lowest since 47.7 in July.
A figure above 50 generally means a positive outlook in the manufacturing sector, while below 50 is taken as a negative reading.
The drop was mainly due to a weakening in domestic consumption demand, said Hongbin Qu, chief economist for China at HSBC.
“As inflation is not a concern, the policy focus should tilt towards supporting growth, to avoid repeating growth deceleration seen in the first quarter 2013,” he said.