The purchasing managers' index, an important indicator of the economic cycle and market, published by the country's official statistics agency, shows this. The index landed at 49, a significant decrease compared to 50.5 in March. It was also below analysts' collective forecast.
It's definitely worse than feared. It shows that the tariffs have started to bite, says Robin Xing, chief economist for China at Morgan Stanley, in a TV interview with Bloomberg.
The decrease is the largest since December 2023 and the first formal signal of the state of China's economy since Trump imposed tariffs of 145 percent on many Chinese goods.
