China’s manufacturing expanded for a second month as government stimulus spending stoked a fledgling recovery in the world’s third-biggest economy.
The Purchasing Manager’s Index rose to a seasonally adjusted 53.5 last month from 52.4 in March, the Federation of Logistics and Purchasing said yesterday in Beijing in an e-mailed statement. A reading above 50 indicates an expansion.
“The worst is already behind China,” said Sun Mingchun (孫明春), an economist at Nomura Holdings Inc in Hong Kong. “Domestic strength should outweigh the tougher external environment.”
In the manufacturing data, the output index rose to 57.4 from 56.9 in March, the new order index climbed to 56.6 from 54.6 and the export order index increased to 49.1 from 47.5.
Signs that the Chinese economy is reviving because of the government’s 4 trillion yuan (US$586 billion) stimulus package include a 30 percent increase in urban fixed-asset investment in March from a year earlier. New loans more than tripled to a record 4.58 trillion yuan in the first quarter. Growth in industrial output accelerated in March.
In yesterday’s numbers, the employment index climbed to 50.3 from 48.6 in March. The overall manufacturing index has gained for five months after falling in November to its lowest level since the data began in 2005.
The latest numbers show that “China’s economy will continue to recover,” Zhang Liqun (張立群), an economist at the State Council Development and Research Center, said in a statement released with the data.
Investment bank Goldman Sachs said in a note that the latest figure “sends a clear signal that real economic activity growth has been improving on a sequential basis from its trough last November.”
Goldman Sachs said the Chinese economy will grow 8.3 percent this year even as countries from the US to Japan are mired in recessions.
A Chinese freighter that allegedly snapped an undersea cable linking Taiwan proper to Penghu County is suspected of being owned by a Chinese state-run company and had docked at the ports of Kaohsiung and Keelung for three months using different names. On Tuesday last week, the Togo-flagged freighter Hong Tai 58 (宏泰58號) and its Chinese crew were detained after the Taipei-Penghu No. 3 submarine cable was severed. When the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) first attempted to detain the ship on grounds of possible sabotage, its crew said the ship’s name was Hong Tai 168, although the Automatic Identification System (AIS)
An Akizuki-class destroyer last month made the first-ever solo transit of a Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ship through the Taiwan Strait, Japanese government officials with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. The JS Akizuki carried out a north-to-south transit through the Taiwan Strait on Feb. 5 as it sailed to the South China Sea to participate in a joint exercise with US, Australian and Philippine forces that day. The Japanese destroyer JS Sazanami in September last year made the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force’s first-ever transit through the Taiwan Strait, but it was joined by vessels from New Zealand and Australia,
CHANGE OF MIND: The Chinese crew at first showed a willingness to cooperate, but later regretted that when the ship arrived at the port and refused to enter Togolese Republic-registered Chinese freighter Hong Tai (宏泰號) and its crew have been detained on suspicion of deliberately damaging a submarine cable connecting Taiwan proper and Penghu County, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement yesterday. The case would be subject to a “national security-level investigation” by the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office, it added. The administration said that it had been monitoring the ship since 7:10pm on Saturday when it appeared to be loitering in waters about 6 nautical miles (11km) northwest of Tainan’s Chiang Chun Fishing Port, adding that the ship’s location was about 0.5 nautical miles north of the No.
SECURITY: The purpose for giving Hong Kong and Macau residents more lenient paths to permanent residency no longer applies due to China’s policies, a source said The government is considering removing an optional path to citizenship for residents from Hong Kong and Macau, and lengthening the terms for permanent residence eligibility, a source said yesterday. In a bid to prevent the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from infiltrating Taiwan through immigration from Hong Kong and Macau, the government could amend immigration laws for residents of the territories who currently receive preferential treatment, an official familiar with the matter speaking on condition of anonymity said. The move was part of “national security-related legislative reform,” they added. Under the amendments, arrivals from the Chinese territories would have to reside in Taiwan for
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