The sky is not falling, but...

EVEN the most incurable optimists would have found yesterday’s business headlines discouraging; not since the financial crisis in 2007-2008 has there been so much bad news in one day.

On Wednesday, data released by the government showed that the value of the country’s manufacturing output fell 4.2 percent year-on-year in April, a sharp reversal from the 10.9 percent and 9.7 percent increases recorded a year and a month earlier, respectively. Exports in April also reversed year-earlier and month-earlier growth rates, contracting by 4.2 percent, the biggest drop in two years.