A closely watched set of privately-produced PMI readings for China produced a bleak picture of the economy in August, with the overall 'composite' PMI reading indicating the economy was contracting, not expanding.
The Caixin-sponsored final manufacturing PMI reading for August was revised slightly upwards to 47.3, from a preliminary reading of 47.1. It was last above 50 - the threshold separating contraction from expansion - in February.
The weak manufacturing reading dragged the overall composite PMI for the economy as a whole to 48.8, versus 50.2 in July. The last time the overall PMI measure for this series showed contraction was in April 2014.