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Chinese factory activity expanded for the first time in eight months in December, as orders picked up ahead of holidays and builders rushed to finish projects, according to surveys released Wednesday.The official purchasing managers index for manufacturing, a monthly survey of companies, rose to 50.1 this month, the National Bureau of Statistics reported. That was just above the 50 cut off for expansion versus contraction on a scale up to 100. Another, private sector, survey also was at 50.1 for December.The better-than-expected readings partly reflect easing pressure due to an extended truce in trade tensions with the U.S. They also suggest manufacturers ramped up production ahead of New Year holidays, when many companies close for days. China’s Lunar New Year falls in mid-February this year.In comments to a new year’s gathering carried Wednesday by China’s state media, President Xi Jinping, vowed to promote “high-quality development” and to carry out “more positive macroeconomic policies” while ensuring social harmony and stability.The world’s second largest economy is forecast to grow at a pace just below the official target of about 5% this year, supported by strong activity in high-tech industries and exports. The official PMI for high-tech manufacturing stood at 52.5 in December, up 2.4 percentage points from the previous month.The report said the PMIs for both equipment manufacturing and the consumer goods industry reached 50.4.The separate report by RatingDog, a Chinese credit research and analysis company based in the southern city of Shenzhen, said that despite an increase in overall orders, new export sales fell slightly and hiring weakened.“Overall, the manufacturing sector regained growth at the end of 2025,” RatingDog’s founder Yao Yu said in a statement. “However, the improvement was marginal, with the impact of promotions and new products appearing impulse-driven and their sustainability requiring observation.”The National Statistic Bureau said the PMI measures for food, textiles, clothing and electronics were above a relatively strong 53.However, while large manufacturers increased their output, factory activity for the small and mid-sized enterprises that account for the lion’s share of employment in China remained in contractionary territory. As consumers cut back on spending, conditions for retailers and restaurants also deteriorated, the report said.Some economists believe China’s economy is growing more slowly than official figures suggest. Its leaders are grappling with long-term challenges including a yearslong slump in the country’s property sector and excess capacity in many industries, including automaking, that has led to damaging price wars.Higher costs for raw materials, especially for metals, has put pressure on company profit margins, the RatingDog report said. It noted that exporters had raised prices for the first time in three months to help offset those higher costs.The upturn in activity may be short-lived as it appears to be helped by a slight increase in government spending, Julian Evans-Pritchard of Capital Economics said in a report.“The big picture is that the structural headwinds from the property downturn and industrial overcapacity are set to persist in 2026 and there appears to be limited appetite among policymakers for a big increase in demand-side stimulus,” he said. Elaine Kurtenbach, AP Business Writer
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Drugmakers plan to raise U.S. prices on at least 350 branded medications including vaccines against COVID, RSV and shingles and blockbuster cancer treatment Ibrance, even as the Trump administration pressures them for cuts, according to data provided exclusively by healthcare research firm 3 Axis Advisors. The number of price increases for 2026 is up from the same point last year, when drugmakers unveiled plans for raises on more than 250 drugs. The median of this year’s price hikes is around 4% in line with 2025. The increases do not reflect any rebates to pharmacy benefit managers and other discounts. DRUGMAKERS ALSO CUT SOME PRICES Drugmakers also plan to cut the list prices on around nine drugs. That includes a more than 40% cut for Boehringer Ingelheim’s diabetes drug Jardiance and three related treatments. Boehringer Ingelheim and Eli Lilly, which sell Jardiance together, did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the reason for the price cuts. Jardiance is among the 10 drugs for which the U.S. government negotiated a lower price for the Medicare program for people aged 65 and older in 2026. Under those negotiations, Boehringer and Lilly slashed the Jardiance price by two-thirds. U.S. patients currently pay by far the most for prescription medicines, often nearly three times more than in other developed nations, and Trump has been pressuring drugmakers to lower their prices to what patients pay in similarly wealthy nations. The increases on 350 medicines come even as Trump has struck deals with 14 drugmakers on prices of some of their medicines for the government’s Medicaid program for low-income Americans and for cash payers. Pfizer, Sanofi, Boehringer Ingelheim, Novartis and GSK are among those companies and also plan to raise prices on some drugs on January 1. “These deals are being announced as transformative when, in fact, they really just nibble around the margins in terms of what is really driving high prices for prescription drugs in the U.S.,” said Dr. Benjamin Rome, a health policy researcher at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. Rome said the companies seem to be maximizing prices while negotiating discounts behind the scenes with health and drug insurers and then setting yet another price for direct-to-consumer cash-pay sales. An HHS spokesman declined to comment. KEEPING UP WITH INFLATION Pfizer announced the most list price hikes, on around 80 different drugs including cancer drug Ibrance, migraine pill Nurtec, and COVID treatment Paxlovid, as well as some administered in hospitals such as morphine and hydromorphone. Most of Pfizer’s increases are below 10%, except for a 15% hike of COVID vaccine Comirnaty, while some of its relatively inexpensive hospital drugs saw more than four-fold increases. Pfizer said in a statement it had adjusted the average list price of its innovative medicines and vaccines for 2026 below the overall rate of inflation. “The modest increase is necessary to support investments that allow us to continue to discover and deliver new medicines as well as address increased costs throughout our business,” the company said. Larger U.S. drug price increases were once far more common. Drugmakers have scaled them back due to criticism from lawmakers and new government policies, such as penalizing companies that charge Medicare program prices that rise faster than inflation. European drugmaker GSK plans to increase prices on around 20 drugs and vaccines from 2% to 8.9%. The drugmaker said it is committed to reasonable prices and the hikes are needed to support scientific innovation. Sanofi and Novartis did not respond to requests for comment. More price hikes and cuts can be expected in early January, which is historically the biggest month for drugmakers to raise prices. 3 Axis is a consulting firm that works with pharmacist groups, health plans and some pharmaceutical industry-related groups on drug pricing and supply chain issues. It is a related entity to, and shares staff with, drug pricing non-profit 46brooklyn. Michael Erman, Reuters
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Zohran Mamdani was a trailblazing candidate whom many in his city of 8 million some with hope, some with trepidation expect to be a disruptive New York mayor. The democratic socialist’s plans for his first day in office on Thursday nod to his politics and priorities, without straying far from his predecessors with a sober official midnight oath-taking followed by a more celebratory ceremony in the afternoon. New York law spells out that four-year mayoral terms start on the January 1 after elections. To avoid any ambiguity about who’s in charge of America’s most populous city, it has become a tradition to hold a small midnight swearing-in. Mamdani has chosen as the site of his midnight oath the Old City Hall subway stop, which was decommissioned in the middle of the previous century and is accessible only a few times a year through guided tours. The subway site, according to Mamdanis transition team, reflects his “commitment to the working people who keep our city running every day.” Mamdani, a 34-year-old former state lawmaker, promised a freeze on rents and free buses and childcare, building a campaign around affordability issues that some have seen as a path forward for his Democratic Party around the country ahead of midterm elections. Mamdani inspired a record-breaking turnout of more than 2 million voters and took 50 percent, nearly 10 points ahead of Andrew Cuomo running as an independent and well ahead of Republican Curtis Sliwa. New York State Attorney General Letitia James, who was among Mamdani’s earliest prominent backers, was to administer the midnight oath to Mamdani. During the first administration of President Donald Trump, James began investigating his business practices in New York, resulting in a judge finding in 2024 that Trump fraudulently overstated his net worth to dupe lenders. The Trump administration has targeted James during his second term, accusing her of mortgage fraud. Grant Reeher, a Syracuse University political science professor, said the role James was to play in the inauguration sent a message to core supporters that Mamdani is “going to be independent of the president. INAUGURATION OF A NEW ERA The Uganda-born Mamdani, who will be New York City’s first Muslim mayor, has been a sharp critic of Trump on issues such as immigration and said his differences with the president were numerous after a warm White House meeting. But being sworn in by the state attorney general may say more about Mamdani’s political alliances than rivalries. In 2014 Bill de Blasio, whom Mamdani regards as the best New York City mayor of his lifetime, was sworn in privately by then-New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman at the start of the first of his two terms. Senator Bernie Sanders, a progressive, Brooklyn-born Vermont senator whom Mamdani calls his inspiration, presided over de Blasio’s public inauguration ceremony in 2018 and will play a similar role for Mamdani. Liberal Democratic U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is also on the inauguration ceremony agenda. Plans for Mamdani’s public inauguration include a ceremony on City Hall’s steps and a program of music and speeches in front of 4,000 guests gathered in City Hall Plaza. In addition, tens of thousands of people will be able to watch a livestream of what Mamdani’s team has dubbed the Inauguration of a New Era in free viewing areas set up along Broadway. Mamdani raised $2.6 million for the transition and celebrations from nearly 30,000 contributors, more than other mayors on record in this century, both by the total and single donations, according to official campaign data that presents disclosures of inaugural expenses beginning with Michael Bloomberg’s first term in 2001. Sami Zaman, the owner of Astoria’s low-key Afghan restaurant Sami’s Kabab House, where Astoria resident Mamdani filmed a campaign video with Sanders, was on the inaugural committee alongside filmmakers, writers and activists. After becoming mayor, Mamdani will move from his one-bedroom Astoria apartment, protected from sharp price hikes by the city rent-stabilization program, to Gracie Mansion, the official residence of New York City mayors on Manhattan’s upscale Upper East Side. Bankers and others in New York, the nation’s financial capital, had expressed concern about Mamdani but since his election they have explored how to work with him. The city has had another mayor associated with democratic socialism, David Dinkins. Dinkins did not make much of his association with the Democratic Socialists of America. During his 1990-1993 term he overcame budget deficits and persuaded private businesses to remain in New York, according to city archivists. Maria Tsvetkova, Reuters
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