On April 5, 2022, the first financial China high frequency economic activity index (yhei) was 0.93, down 0.10 from a week ago. In the week ending April 5, the main positive indicators decreased in varying degrees, and the impact of the epidemic on economic activities in many places continued; "8 city subway flow index" and "30 city commercial housing sales index" fell to 0.55 and 0.52 respectively, which were the lowest values except for the Spring Festival holiday.
Steel prices rose this week. The price of steel billets in Tangshan rose by 0.62% in the week ending April 5, up 3.85% in the past month and down 2.02% from the same period last year. Cement prices fell. The cement price index fell by 0.34% in the week ending April 5, and rose by 1.35% in the past month, up 15.10% from the same period last year. Coal prices continued to decline, and the price of thermal coal fell by 0.27% in the past month, up 26.15% from the same period last year.
As of the week of April 5, the central bank's net withdrawal of funds through the open market was 120 billion yuan. The inter-bank overnight interest rate fell 43 basis points in the week ended April 5, 63 basis points in the past month and 45 basis points compared with the same period last year. The seven day repo rate fell 128 basis points in the past week and 23 basis points in the past month, down 31 basis points from the same period last year.
Recently, the National Bureau of statistics released PMI data in March. In March, the manufacturing PMI was 49.5%, down 0.7 percentage points from the previous month. It was the first time that it fell below the boom and bust line in the last five months. Affected by the spread of the epidemic in many places, the prosperity level of the manufacturing industry decreased. From the perspective of breakdown indicators, the new order index of manufacturing industry in March was 48.8%, down 1.9 percentage points from the previous month, and the market demand began to weaken. Superimposed on the impact of sealing and control in some regions, the production index in the current month was 49.5%, down 0.9 percentage points from the previous month, shrinking for the first time since October last year. In March, the supplier delivery time index was 46.5%, down 1.7 percentage points from the previous month. Affected by the prolonged delivery time of raw materials, the inventory of raw materials continued to decrease, and the tight supply chain promoted the purchase price of main raw materials to increase, and its PMI index reached 66.1%.
In March, the PMI of non manufacturing industry was 48.4%, which fell to the contraction range for the first time since September last year. The decline of PMI of non manufacturing industry was mainly affected by the contraction of service industry in the same month. By industry, the PMI of the construction industry in March was 58.1%, up 0.5 percentage points from the previous month. The PMI of service industry was 46.7%, down 3.8 percentage points from the previous month, entering the contraction range. Specifically, in March, the new order index of the service industry was 44.7%, down 1.6 percentage points from the previous month. The continued contraction of demand also affected the confidence of service enterprises in the market, and the business activity expectation of the service industry decreased 6.0 percentage points from the previous month.
Affected by the spread of the epidemic, in March, the average subway passenger volume of ten important cities (Shanghai, Guangzhou, Nanjing, Wuhan, Xi'an, Chengdu, Suzhou, Zhengzhou, Chongqing and Beijing) decreased year-on-year, of which Shanghai decreased by 54.02% year-on-year, followed by Suzhou (38.66%) and Nanjing (38.06%); Beijing decreased by 10% year-on-year, with the smallest decline. Residents' travel is limited, which has the most direct impact on the service industry that needs people to people contact.
