“I am curious to see what China’s May trade data tells us. If China truly is
going to lead the global recovery, China needs to import more – and not just
import more commodities for its (growing) strategic stockpiles.”

The consumer price index fell 1.4 per cent from a year earlier, compared with a 1.5 per cent decline in April, marking the fourth straight month of falling prices. On a month-on-month basis, the National Bureau of Statistics said the CPI dropped 0.3 per cent from April’s level.

The decline in food prices eased significantly, from 1.3 per cent in April to 0.6 per cent in May. Prices of non-food items, however, fell 1.7 per cent last month, more than April’s 1.5 per cent. However, the producer price index, which measures prices paid at the factory gate, fell 7.2 per cent in May. This was sharper than the 6.6 per cent fall in April.

Manufacturing On The Rebound?

The CLSA China Purchasing Managers Index rose to 51.2 in May from 50.1 in April, making May the second consecutive month the CLSA PMI was above 50.0, after eight months of being below the critical line. The rate of destocking increased in May, which was encouraging given there is some anecdotal evidence that production may be running ahead of orders. On aggregate the reverse seems to be true. The CLSA China PMI is compiled by U.K.-based research firm Markit Economics. The export order index increased to 50.1, the first expansion in 11 months. The output index fell to 56.9 from 57.4 and the new order index dropped to 56.2 from 56.6.

In fact in China there are two indexes, a fact which has lead to some controversy. The second index produced by the government-backed Federation of Logistics & Purchasing has repeatedly shown slightly higher readings, a feature which may be the result of giving a slightly larger weighting to the state enterprises, which are more oriented towards the domestic market. The May PMI saw the CFLP benchmark reading fall to 53.1 in May from 53.5 in April. This was the third consecutive month this index has held above 50.

So despite a good deal of controversy about what exactly is happening in China, and how sustainable what is happening actually is, it does seem that, for whatever reason, manufacturing industry is expanding at this point.

China’s Industrial Production Figures Press Leaked

The 21st Century Business Herald have reported China’s industrial production ahead of the official release date. The report says fixed-asset investments for May, due out Thursday, will show a 32.9% rise, while the month’s industrial production and retail sales, due Friday, will post gains of 8.9% and 15.2%, respectively.

The figures were apparently derived from data circulating within government days ahead of public announcement. Reports in the mainland Chinese “21st Century Business Herald” and in Hong Kong’s “Ming Pao” had already managed to predict the above consumer and producer price results ahead of today’s official release, which raises questions about what exactly is going on here.

The accuracy of these newspaper forecasts is better than those of most economists, raising more than just eyebrows. Merrill Lynch said the results, rather than being a lucky coincidence, show that the “whispered numbers” referred in the reports are reliable. “Today’s release confirms those whispered inflation numbers, meaning other whispered numbers are likely to be highly credible,” Merrill Lynch analysts said in a research note today.