By Leika Kihara
TOKYO (Reuters) – Asia’s factory activity weakened in September as soft Chinese demand and global economic uncertainty pointed to a challenging outlook, private surveys showed, keeping policymakers under pressure to shore up their fragile economies.
The region’s manufacturers may get some relief in coming months from aggressive stimulus unveiled by Chinese authorities over the past week, including a lowering of interest rates and injection of liquidity into the banking system.
Factory activity in Japan shrank in September and expanded at a slower pace in Taiwan, purchasing managers’ index (PMI) surveys showed on Tuesday, highlighting the toll soft global demand was taking on Asian exporters.
In a sign of the widening fallout from slowing U.S. growth, South Korea’s export growth decelerated in September with shipments to the world’s largest economy barely increasing, data showed on Tuesday.
In China, factories struggled to…
