Drop of 1.2 points compared to December. The lowest figure in five years. Hotels, services, mail, public utilities are below the threshold of 50 points. More and more industries are relocating to Africa, where the average salary is 50 U.S. dollars. In Guangdong (Shenzhen), the minimum wage is about 300 U.S. dollars.

Beijing ( AsiaNews / Agencies) -In January, the commercial business index in China, which tests the health of businesses such as hotels, services, mail, transport, construction and utilities, fell below the threshold of 50 , indicating a further contraction of the national economy.

More generally, the PMI index (Purchasing Managers Index) for the non-manufacturing sector in January 2014 was 53.4, a drop of 1.2 points from the previous month . This data, released by the National Statistics Office is the lowest in the last five years.

It shows that there are fewer orders from abroad, but also in less internal demand.

However, the index for the commercial activities related to rail transport have remained at a high value of 60, even if a slowdown is noticeable.

The reduction in the non-manufacturing PMI comes a few days after the publication of industrial PMI, which also dropped (50.5 in January from 51 in December: the lowest figure in the last six months).

According to several experts, China is losing its crown as the "world's factory". Foreign investors and the Chinese themselves are shifting production lines to places where labor is even cheaper than in China.

Africa has become the destination of choice. The average wage of a worker in Africa is 50 U.S. dollars. By comparison, in Shenzhen , the minimum wage has risen to 1808 yuan ( U.S. $ 298.3 ) .

 

• china
• economy
• manufacturing
• industry
• PMI
• drop
• data