CHINA: China tries to boost consumer spending as factory sector contracts for fourth month.

The official Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), which measures activity in the manufacturing sector at mainly larger business and state-owned firms, came in at 49.3 in July, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Monday.

That result was slightly up compared with 49 in June but the industry has now contracted each month since April. A PMI reading above 50 indicates expansion, while anything below that level shows contraction.

The official non-manufacturing PMI, which looks at activities in services and construction, also fell, to 51.5. That is the lowest rate since December, when the index hit its weakest level since February 2020 at the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

By the end of last year, Covid infections were sweeping through China after Beijing abruptly ended nearly three years of draconian pandemic restrictions that initially kept the virus at bay while hammering local businesses and isolating the world’s second largest economy.

“Boosting consumption is the key in stimulating recovery and expanding demand,” said Li Chunlin, deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the country’s top economic planner, at a press conference in Beijing.

I’ve learned over the last 18 years that nothing boosts personal spending more than having kids, but China isn’t really doing that.