China’s Manufacturing PMI from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) for December has come in at its third straight month of contraction at 49.0, much worse than was expected

• from 49.5 expected and 49.4 in November

Services at 50.4, a slight miss

• 50.5 expected and 50.2 in November

Composite is 50.3, from 50.4 in November.

The private Caixin factory survey will be issued on Tuesday:

China has two primary Purchasing Managers‘ Index (PMI) surveys – the official PMI released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and the Caixin China PMI published by the media company Caixin and research firm Markit / S&P Global.

• The official PMI survey covers large and state-owned companies, while the Caixin PMI survey covers small and medium-sized enterprises. As a result, the Caixin PMI is considered to be a more reliable indicator of the performance of China’s private sector.
• Another difference between the two surveys is their methodology. The Caixin PMI survey uses a broader sample of companies than the official survey.
• Despite these differences, the two surveys often provide similar readings on China’s manufacturing sector.

During last week were comments from the head of the NDRC:

• China’s ’state planner‘ on measures to expand domestic demand, promote stable growth

• As I said in that post, efforts at boosting the economy appear to be getting some pay off:
• China’s November Industrial Profits rebound with 29.5% y/y Growth

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ps. Here’s an interesting piece from Reuters for some holiday reading:

• How China talked markets out of a run on the yuan

This article was written by Eamonn Sheridan at www.forexlive.com.