5.5 magnitude quake injures 32 in Yunnan

Thirty-two people have been injured after a 5.5 magnitude earthquake struck southwest China’s Yunnan Province on Sunday afternoon, according to local authorities. As of noon yesterday, the tremor that struck Cangyuan County at 6:24 p.m. had affected more than 81,000 residents in the counties of Cangyuan and Gengma in Lincang City, displacing 75,764, according to a statement from the city’s civil affairs bureau. Seven of the injured were severely hurt. In addition, over 220 homes were razed and over 15,800 were seriously damaged in the two counties, it said. The Ministry of Civil Affairs and the China National Commission for Disaster Reduction initiated a grade IV emergency response yesterday afternoon and have dispatched emergency response teams to the region. A grade IV response, the lowest in the emergency response system, means a 24-hour alert, daily damage reports, and the dispatch of money and relief materials within 48 hours. Relief materials, including tents, quilts and tarpaulins have been sent to disaster-hit regions. As of 4:30 p.m. yesterday, 730 tents had been set up, and 700 tarpaulins, 2,000 quilts, five tons of rice, two tons of noodles and flour, 730 boxes of drinking water and 791 boxes of instant noodles had been delivered, according to the provincial civil affairs bureau. Cangyuan is a sparsely populated county that borders Myanmar; the houses in its rural areas were not built to sustain earthquakes. A 6.5 magnitude earthquake hit Yunnan’s Ludian County on Aug. 3, 2014, claiming more than 600 lives and destroying over 80,000 homes.   Xinhua

A worker walks past an assembly line at a General Motors joint venture in Wuhan in central China’s Hubei province

Survey shows manufacturing improving

China’s manufacturing activity improved in February for the first time in four months but export demand weakened, a survey released yesterday showed. HSBC’s manufacturing index based on a survey of factory purchasing managers rose to 50.7 from January’s 49.7. It uses a 100-point scale on which numbers above 50 show activity increasing. On Saturday, Beijing cut interest rates for a second time in three months in a sign of official worry that China’s economic slowdown is deepening too abruptly. The HSBC survey, conducted by Markit Economics, found growth in output and total new orders accelerated but new export business declined for the first time in 10 months. Input costs fell, adding to the possibility that already low inflation could tumble into a potentially dangerous bout of deflation. Consumer inflation fell to just 0.8 percent in January. Wholesale inflation has been in negative territory for two years due to excess production capacity in many industries that has led to price-cutting competition. Companies reported “the strongest expansion of output since last summer while total new business also rose at a faster rate,” said Markit economist Annabel Fiddes in a report. Export orders fell for the first time in 10 months. “The renewed fall in new export orders suggests that foreign demand has weakened,” said Fiddes. “Meanwhile, marked reductions in both input and output prices indicated that deflationary pressures persist.” AP