Chinese factory activity contracted in September for the first time since the height of its initial coronavirus outbreak in February 2020, official data showed Thursday, as it faces waves of power outages and fears for the real estate sector. The Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) — a key gauge of manufacturing activity in the world’s second-largest economy — slipped to 49.6 from 50.1 in August, the National Bureau of Statistics said. Any figure below the 50-point […]