In his New Year's message, Chinese President Xi Jinping acknowledged that the country faces a “tough” test; 2023 Photo: Ju Peng/Xinhua
Xi Jinping acknowledged that people are struggling to find work and “meet basic needs” in China as fresh data points to a continued slowdown in factories and the housing market.
In his New Year's message, China's president, in a rare acknowledgment of economic weakness, acknowledged that 2023 had been a “difficult year” for businesses, adding that “some people have had difficulty finding work and meeting basic needs.”
His comments came amid fresh signs of economic slowdown on Sunday as new data showed China's manufacturing activity contracted to its weakest level in six months.
The official manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI) fell to 49 in December from 49.4 in November, hitting its lowest level since June, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.
Any score below 50 indicates a contraction in economic activity. Kelvin Lam of Pantheon Macro Economics said Chinese manufacturing “continues to flounder” despite Beijing's efforts to support the economy.
“The impact of the recent fiscal stimulus has not yet been felt in the economy,” he said, noting that recovery efforts in disaster-hit regions have been slowed by severe winter weather.
Meanwhile, the decline in new home sales also accelerated in December. The value of new homes sold by the country's 100 biggest property companies fell almost 35% from a year earlier to 451.3bn yuan (£50bn).