China’s Services Gauge Declines as Economic Slowdown Deepens

By Bloomberg News  

Photographer: Brent Lewin/Bloomberg

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A gauge of China’s non-manufacturing industries declined to an eight-month low in September, adding pressure on the government to step up stimulus to counter a property downturn.
The non-manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index dropped to 54.0 from 54.4 in August, the National Bureau of Statistics and China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing said today in Beijing. Readings above 50 indicate expansion.
The reading suggests a property slump is dragging services industries, which had been among the better performing areas of the economy this year. After industrial production growth slowed to a five-year low in August and investment growth
moderated, a slowing expansion of services adds a further hurdle to the government’s gross domestic product goal.
China’s financial markets are closed for national holidays.
Services accounted for 46.6 percent of gross domestic product in the first half of 2014, 1.3 percentage points higher than the same period a year earlier, the statistics bureau said in July when it released second-quarter GDP (CNGDPYOY) data.
Today’s report compared with the 51.1 manufacturing PMI released earlier this week.