China’s Services PMI Rose: Is the Economy Back on Track?
China’s final Markit services PMI stood at 53.9 in December compared to 51.9 in November 2017. It beat the preliminary market estimation of 51.8.
Jan. 23 2018, Updated 1:45 p.m. ET
China’s services PMI in December
According to data provided by Markit Economics, China’s final Markit services PMI (purchasing managers’ index) stood at 53.9 in December compared to 51.9 in November 2017. It beat the preliminary market estimation of 51.8.
China’s services PMI includes the following factors:
- Production output and volume showed a solid increase in December 2017.
- New business orders improved at a higher rate in December 2017 compared to November.
- Employment in the service sector rose sharply in December 2017.
Performance of related ETFs in December
The December 2017 services PMI represented the country’s strongest metric since August 2014. The country’s improvement in overseas and domestic demand pushed up the service activity during the month. The business confidence index also reached a six-month high in December.
The stronger improvement in China’s service activity also signals that the transitional phase from a manufacturing hub to a consumption-oriented economy is on track.
The Deutsche X-trackers Harvest CSI 300 China A ETF (ASHR), which tracks the performance of China (YINN) (MCHI), rose 2.3% in December 2017. The iShares China Large-Cap ETF (FXI) rose 2.0% in the same month.
In the next part of this series, we’ll analyze the performance of Brazil’s manufacturing PMI in December 2017.
