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China manufacturing activity expands in October: survey

Global crisis is hitting IT spending: Microsoft chief
Companies worldwide are slashing spending on information technology because of the global downturn and will have to learn to do more with less, Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer said Monday. Ballmer, on a visit to South Korea to promote the newly-released Windows 7 system, said IT spending represents about half of all capital expenditure in developed countries such as the United States and South Korea. "With capital more scarce, we know IT budgets are more scarce," Ballmer told chief information officers (CIOs) from local businesses.

"There is going to be pressure in businesses to drive for a new level of efficiency." Ballmer said the global economy went through a set of "once-in-a-lifetime" changes last year. "So it's important that we're not saying we just had a crisis and we are going to have a recovery. We are going to live in what we like to call the new normal. "The new normal will be a more scarce environment than we saw a year, two years, three years ago. While we will see growth, we will not see recovery," he said, citing a 15 percent drop in global personal computer and server sales. Ballmer said there would be pressure worldwide to cut IT spending but to increase its impact. "We need a strategy to help you, we say, 'do more with less'," he said, touting Windows 7 as part of the solution.

"It's simpler for its end-users and faster and more responsive," he said. "You have an opportunity not only to help the users do more but also reduce IT spending." The system's "cloud computing" and "virtualisation" allow users to perform tasks with less hardware and thus less electricity, he said. The software giant last month said net profit fell 18 percent in the first quarter of its fiscal year to 3.57 billion dollars from 4.37 billion dollars a year earlier. But its revenue of 12.92 billion dollars exceeded analysts' forecasts.

by Staff Writers
 Beijing (AFP) Nov 2, 2009
 China's manufacturing activity continued to expand in October, as domestic and overseas demand strengthened and employment picked up, an independent survey published Monday showed.

The HSBC China Manufacturing PMI, or purchasing managers index, rose to an 18-month high of 55.4 in October from 55.0 in September.

A reading above 50 means the sector is expanding, while a reading below 50 indicates an overall decline.

"We believe the ongoing strong recovery in the manufacturing sector should gain further momentum in the coming months... underpinning strong economic growth in the fourth quarter," Qu Hongbin, chief economist for China at HSBC, said in a statement.

A separate official PMI compiled by the National Bureau of Statistics showed manufacturing activity rose to 55.2 in October -- the highest since May 2008 -- from 54.3 in September.

The HSBC survey showed manufacturers were hiring at the fastest pace since the index started in April 2004 as factories tried to keep up with new orders.

Foreign order levels rose for the fifth straight month and at the strongest rate since June 2007, HSBC said in a report, as global economic conditions improved.

"Anecdotal evidence suggested that firmer demand from abroad, with North America mentioned in particular, had pushed export sales higher," HSBC said.

China's economy expanded by 8.9 percent in the third quarter, up from 7.9 percent in the second quarter and 6.1 percent in the first three months, mainly as a result of massive government spending amid the global downturn.

Beijing announced a four-trillion-yuan (586-billion-dollar) stimulus package a year ago in a bid to prop up growth in the country by boosting investment in infrastructure and other government-backed projects.

The HSBC PMI sank to a record low of 38.8 in November last year as the global financial crisis took hold, but improved continuously in the following months, moving above 50 in March.

Manufacturing accounted for more than 40 percent of economic output last year in China, which has been hit hard by evaporating demand for its products in key export markets such as the United States and Europe.

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