Chinese Manufacturing PMI Drops to Lowest in 32 Months; Korea’s Weakest Export Growth Since 2009; Chinese Premier Wen Pledges to Maintain Curbs

From Bloomberg:

A Chinese manufacturing index dropped to the lowest level since February 2009, bolstering the case for fiscal or monetary loosening to support the expansion of the world’s second-biggest economy.

The Purchasing Managers’ Index fell to 50.4 in October from 51.2 in September, the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing said in a statement today. That was lower than any of 16 economist estimates in a Bloomberg News survey that had a median forecast of 51.8. A reading above 50 indicates expansion.

An index of export orders contracted for the second time in three months as Europe’s failure to resolve its debt crisis dims the outlook for shipments to China’s biggest market.

South Korea reported today the weakest export growth since 2009 and Taiwan’s government said yesterday that the island’s economy expanded by the least in two years.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-01/china-pmi-drops-for-first-time-in-3-months.html

From Bloomberg:

China property stocks fell for the first time in six days in Shanghai trading after Premier Wen Jiabao doused speculation the government will ease curbs on the industry.

The government will “firmly” maintain restrictions on real estate and local authorities should continue to strictly implement its policies, Wen said according to a statement following a State Council meeting.

China is on “a bigger and faster treadmill” than ever as property sales slow, Jim Chanos, president and founder of $6 billion hedge fund Kynikos Associates Ltd., said in a Bloomberg Television interview from Singapore on Oct. 28.

Chanos has forecast since at least February 2010 that the property market will slump, saying that China is Dubai times a thousand and on a “treadmill to hell” because of its reliance on real estate. Property transactions in the past two months in so-called tier one, two and three cities his firm tracks are down 40 percent to 60 percent year on year, said Chanos, who predicts “the property slowdown or worse has started.”

The hedge-fund manager’s views are at odds with those of Stephen Roach, non-executive chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia, who said in New York last week that the government has had some success in deflating a housing bubble and that concerns of a hard landing are “overblown.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-30/china-to-firmly-maintain-property-curbs-premier-wen-says.html