Ft.com
An important gauge of China’s manufacturing sector has weakened sharply, adding to the pressure on the government to take more decisive action to support the flagging economy. The official purchasing managers’ index for manufacturing fell to 50.4 in May, its lowest in five months, from 53.3 in April. Although it was the Chinese PMI’s sixth straight month above the 50 level, which signals an expansion of activity, the fall in the index highlighted a clear softening of growth momentum. High quality global journalism requires investment. As the first item of official economic data for May, the PMI offers a timely glimpse into how the Chinese economy performed over the past month. Many analysts and officials had believed that China was on track for a “soft landing” until a raft of poor data in April led to a flurry of growth forecast downgrades. http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/d2f17014-ab87-11e1-b675-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1wQ4tZnA1

The dramatic drop in Indian economic growth isn’t bothering the likes of Mahendra Saraf. A farmer, he works in a sector that has seen growth shrink to 1.7 per cent in the first three months of 2012 against 7.5 per cent in the same period last year. But Mr Saraf, 26, is confident the blow to his profits will be cushioned by government agricultural subsidies. “Global and domestic demand was not been very strong,” he says, “but the government buys excess grain at a fixed price, so we will get that money anyway.” High quality global journalism requires investment. Such safety blankets – the size of which vary from state to state and industry to industry – are among the targets of those who say the government of Manmohan Singh needs to take radical measures to restore growth in the Indian economy. With growth in the first quarter of 2012 rising at 5.3 per cent, the slowest rate in nine years, policy makers are panicking about how to turn things around. “It’s an absolute disaster,” says Omkar Goswami, head of the Corporate and Economic Research Group in New Delhi. “We went from nearly growing at 10 per cent to 5 per cent in less than two years . . . it’s very, very concerning.”http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/d9928116-ab13-11e1-b875-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1wQ4tZnA1

Madrid was dealt a double blow on Thursday after it emerged that almost €100bn in capital had left the country in the first three months of the year and the head of the European Central Bank lambasted its handling of Bankia, the troubled Spanish lender. Data published by Spain’s central bank showed €97bn had been pulled out in the first quarter – around a 10th of the country’s GDP – as concerns mounted over Madrid’s ability to contain its twin economic and financial crises, which have forced government borrowing costs to euro-era highs. http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/25c39204-ab01-11e1-b875-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1wQ4tZnA1

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