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Dec. 31 (UPI) -- China's manufacturing activity shrank for the third straight month in December as COVID-19 infections continue to sweep across the country, after Beijing loosened restrictions. The official purchasing managers' index (PMI) fell to 47.0 from 48.0 in November, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Saturday.
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It was the biggest one-month drop since February 2020.
The epidemic weighed on the December reading, senior Chinese statistician Zhao Qinghe told the state-run Xinhua news agency.
The service sector was also weaker as COVID-19 and other factors weighed on market activities. The sub-index for business activities declined 5.7 percentage points from the previous month to 39.4.
China is currently experiencing its first major COVID-19 surge since the pandemic originated there. In the first 20 days of December, an estimated 250 million people were infected with the virus.
China no longer is reporting asymtomatic cases and has closed a network of PCR testing sites. People who are using rapid antigen tests to detect infections are under no obligation to report positive results.
The Chinese government has said it will not quarantine travelers upon arrival to its mainland starting Jan. 8 in another big step to unwind its "zero-COVID" lockdown policies.
Despite the latest wave, Zhou Hao, chief economist at brokerage house Guotai Junan International, told CNBC he believes economic activity will begin to turn around.
"In general, we believe that the worst for the Chinese economy is behind us, and a strong economic recovery is ahead," he said.
