China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has ordered authorities in Guangdong province to stop producing a regional Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for the manufacturing sector as it seeks to control the flow of sensitive economic data. Guangdong province will now not release the purchasing managers’ index (PMI) data for either October or November.

(Comment: The Guangdong PMI for the manufacturing sector actually rose in September to 50.2, from 49.3 a month earlier. The Guangdong PMI is calculated based on a survey of 1,000 key enterprises in the province.)