• Says the ‘surprising drop’ in the figure cannot be fully explained by the Chinese New Year
• From 2005-12 there are five years in which the holiday fell in
  February – HSBC PMI averaged only a 0.95 percentage point dip
• Today’s report is inconsistent with the MNI indicator (61.79 in February vs. 55.16 in January) and casts doubt on the strength of the recovery