in activity. the world s second largest economy grew faster than expected in the first quarter thanks to robust consumer spending after lockdowns were lifted. but factory output has lagged due to weak global growth and this latest data raises questions about the sustainability of china s recovery. a market strategist told me these numbers show how uneven china s economic recovery has been. fix, economic recovery has been. pretty dire set of numbers, although still an expansion. it has come below expectations, but of course the bigger shock on the manufacturing side, and to see how uneven the recovery is in china. two things worth noting. first, we are coming from a strong first quarter where we had this initial euphoria after the reopening of the economy, as well as some benefit from the chinese new year period. so of course, manufacturers are a little bit downbeat after that initial euphoria has come down. secondly, my bigger concern is about geopolitics and the impact maki
some breaking news in ukraine, a series of big explosions in the city of pavlohrad. social media reports say warehouses storing ukrainian military equipment were targeted. it s unclear whether or not there have been any casualties. the russian attack comes after a drone strike on russian occupied crimea on saturday which destroyed 40,000 tonnes of oil products. this is the latest we are getting tonight. from the reuters news agency, reports of air defence systems repelling missile attacks in the early hours on monday in the early hours on monday in the kyiv region, according to local authorities. after air raid alerts were issued throughout all of ukraine, kyiv s regional administration wrote on the pillaging messaging app saying air defences were at work after explosions were heard. the telegram messaging app. we start in sudan, where two rival military factions have announced a new ceasefire, but are showing few signs that they will honor it. air strikes continued to pou
economy grew faster than expected in the first quarter thanks to robust consumer spending after lockdowns were lifted. but factory output has lagged due to weak global growth and this latest data raises questions about the sustainability of china s recovery. a market strategist told me these numbers show how uneven china s recovery has been. a pretty dire set of numbers, although services is still an expansion. it has come below expectations, but of course the bigger shock on the manufacturing side, and shows how uneven the recovery is in china. two things worth noting. first, we are coming from a strong first quarter where we had this initial euphoria after the reopening of the economy, as well as some benefit from the chinese new year period. so of course, manufacturers are a little bit downbeat after that initial euphoria has come down. secondly, my bigger concern is about geopolitics and the impact on making the external demand weaker for china s manufacturing sector. we