AFP, Beijing

China’s factory activity shrank for a seventh straight month in October, official data showed Friday, as trade uncertainty ahead of talks between President Xi Jinping and US leader Donald Trump weighed on the economic powerhouse.

The manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index -- a key measure of industrial health -- came in at 49.0, marking another contraction, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The reading missed a forecast of 49.6 by a Bloomberg survey of economists and was down 0.8 percentage points from the previous month.

Manufacturing in October slowed “due to factors such as... the more complex international environment”, said NBS statistician Huo Lihui in a statement.

Huo also attributed part of the slowdown to China’s “Golden Week” National Day holiday this month, a period that usually sees slower factory activity.

The country’s overall economic output “remained generally stable”, he added.

October’s reading equalled the lowest level of factory activity this year, matching the 49.0 figure in April.

That month kicked off a streak of contraction as factories dealt with ebbs and flows of a US-China trade war.

“The economic momentum has weakened” since the middle of the year, wrote economist Zhiwei Zhang of Pinpoint Asset Management.

But after negotiations with the United States “went succesfully... I think the macro policy in China will stay unchanged for the rest of this year”, he said.