The new orders index was 22.7 percent in December, 5.2 percentage points lower than the 27.9 percent registered in November.  No industry sector surveyed reported growth in December; the jobs sector was particularly grim. The employment index was 29.9 percent in December, a decrease of 4.3 percentage points from November. That was the lowest reading since November 1982.  In Europe, a closely watched index of purchasing managers showed manufacturing hit a low in December, falling to 33.9 from 35.6. Any reading above 50 signals growth, while a reading below 50 indicates contraction in manufacturing. Similarly grim readings in Australia, China and India highlighted how the Asia-Pacific region has become caught up in the global turmoil.  In China, the purchasing managers’ index by the brokerage firm CLSA showed the manufacturing sector had contracted for a fifth consecutive month. The survey showed the steepest decline in its history.  With five back-to-back purchasing index readings signaling contraction, “the manufacturing sector, which accounts for 43 percent of the Chinese economy, is close to technical recession,” said Eric Fishwick, head of economic research at CLSA in Hong Kong, in a note with the release.  The data added to the flood of statistical evidence from across the Asia-Pacific region showing that activity was slowing faster than previously thought as demand withers in the United States and Europe.  Australia’s manufacturing index showed a seventh month of contraction, and a similar survey in India showed activity down for a second month in December. In South Korea, December data showed exports plummeted 17.4 percent from a year ago.  President Lee Myung-bak of South Korea pledged on Friday that the government would go into emergency mode to pull the country out of its economic crisis.  And in Singapore, the economy shrank 12.5 percent in the last quarter of 2008 from the previous period, causing the trade and industry ministry to lower its growth forecast for 2009. The ministry now expects Singapore’s economy to shrink up to 2 percent, with only 1 percent growth at best. Previously, it had expected up to 2 percent growth.  The worsening data, combined with a stream of company profit warnings, production cuts and layoffs, raises the pressure on policy makers to step up their efforts to bolster their economies.  India on Friday cut its main interest rate by a full percentage point, to 5.5 percent, and took a series of steps to bring more money into the country. It also raised the limit on overseas investments in corporate bonds to $15 billion, from $6 billion, and will contribute 200 billion rupees ($4 billion), to increase the capital of state-run banks.  Countries across the region were widely expected to make more interest rate cuts in coming weeks.  “China’s economic outlook for 2009 will be best characterized as ‘getting worse before getting better,’ laying the foundation for a firmer recovery in 2010,” said Qing Wang, chief economist for Greater China at Morgan Stanley in Hong Kong.  Mr. Wang expected growth to continue to slow in the first six months, before stimulus measures could take effect. “The authorities have already made delivering economic growth a top policy priority by adopting a campaign-style policy execution approach,” he said.  Mr. Wang expects interest rates to be cut aggressively by an additional 1.35 percentage points this year. The country’s important one-year lending rate is 5.31 percent. He added that a $586 billion stimulus package announced in November “is unlikely to be the first and only stimulus package for the entire year.”  The package includes substantial infrastructure spending, which will begin to lead to increased activity once weather allows construction to begin in the spring. “The stimulus package provides a short-term buffer for the economy, and other policy measures such as health care and land reforms will be a long-term growth driver. This should help the stock market at least to stabilize in 2009,” said Yi Tang, general manager at Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management in Hong Kong.  “We are seeing some encouraging signs that institutional investors are starting to consider putting money back into equities in China and the rest of Asia, hopefully in the next month or two,” he said. “But it will take longer for retail investors — who are worried about their job prospects and the wider economy — to go back into the market.”  A version of this article appears in print on , on Page B1 of the New York edition with the headline: Data Shows Manufacturing Is Suffering In All Corners. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe
New reports from the world’s leading economies showed manufacturing continuing to slump amid the worst slowdown since the Great Depression.