Commenting on China's shrinking Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), SMU Associate Professor of Finance Fu Fangjian noted that the contraction of January’s manufacturing PMI was partly due to companies rushing to export goods before the end of last year, influenced by US President Donald Trump's tariff threats. He added that despite a record trade surplus, the decline in industrial profits highlights extremely weak domestic demand in China. This exacerbates China's economic reliance on external markets and intensifies downward pressure, which in turn restricts domestic consumption.
