Japan’s February Factory Activity Growth Falls to 5-month Low: Flash PMI

Japan’s February Factory Activity Growth Falls to 5-month Low: Flash PMI
An engineer makes an arm rail for residential buildings inside a metal processing factory at an industrial zone in downtown Tokyo, Japan, on March 22, 2016. Yuya Shino/Reuters
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TOKYO—Japan’s manufacturing activity expanded at the slowest pace in five months in February as output contracted, underscoring the prolonged impact that global supply chain disruptions are having on the world’s third-largest economy.

Activity in the services sector shrank at the fastest rate since May 2020 as demand weakened after the country saw coronavirus infections spike to a record due to the Omicron variant.