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 ) .