China Factory Activity Falls at Slower Pace as Covid Curbs Ease

China’s factory activity in May contracted from the previous month as both production and new orders fell, although the slowdown wasn’t as fast as in April, a private gauge showed Wednesday.

The Caixin Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index rose to 48.1 last month from April’s 46 -- still below 50, the dividing line that separates expansion from contraction, Caixin and S&P Global said in a statement. That was worse than the marginal improvement to 49 that economists had expected in a Bloomberg survey.