China SMEI: Pre-holiday retreat – Standard Chartered

Following the recent survey results concerning China’s Small and Medium Enterprises (SME), Standard Chartered found that the index dropped to 55.0 in January from 55.8. Their research cites nearness to the Lunar New Year holidays as the key reason behind the retreat.

Key quotes

However, raw-material restocking and rising output prices bode well for production and profit outlooks.

Exporters outperformed domestically oriented firms; manufacturing SMEs lagged services-sector ones.

SMEs’ financing conditions improved at the start of the year; the cost of borrowing rose mildly.