China's official manufacturing PMI to fall further from 49.8 to 49.6 in February: Societe Generale

Quotes from Societe Generale Cross Asset Research:

-Flash reading released earlier this week show that HSBC manufacturing PMI improved for the second consecutive month to 50.1 in February from 49.7. However, we expect China's official manufacturing PMI to fall further from 49.8 to 49.6 in February, reflecting the continuous divergence of performance between large enterprises (official PMI) and smaller ones (HSBC PMI).

-The Chinese New Year holiday and disinflation are likely to have exerted downward pressure on the survey readings, but weak demand has probably remained a factor as well. As we observed in other data, once again this year the Chinese economy seems to be exhibiting a similar pattern of a weak first quarter. Data disappointment is likely to continue into mid-April when March data are released.