here's steve engle with this green -- this grim reading. stephen: it is a 6.5 year low for the market. we get the flash number about a week and a half before the final number is out september 1. it is about 80%-80 5% of the final reading. it is heading further lower. 47.1 is the reading for august. it looks as though it will be six months in a row where the reading is in contraction. this preliminary reading for august holds. the final number will likely hold in contraction territory. it is the lowest since march of 2009, when china was dealing with the effects of the global financial crisis. a bloomberg survey expected the reading to have improved from july, but it did not. was expected at 48.2. august comes in 47.1. a weaker you want not helping sentiment. there's not a lot of pricing power at the factory gates in china as producer price deflation has persisted for 41 consecutive months. more bad news coming out of china. back to you. rishaad: let's have a look at the reaction from investors. here's juliette. one of the biggest things we

here's steve engle with this green -- this grim reading. stephen: it is a 6.5 year low for the market. we get the flash number about a week and a half before the final number is out september 1. it is about 80%-80

steve, how weak do you think things are? bloomberghe latest survey showing what many have long suspected, the chinese economy growing more slowly than official data suggest. iterlying growth -- it makes easier to understand why they are throwing except -- throwing everything except the kitchen sink to stimulate some growth. four rate cuts since last december. last week, the last tuesday devaluing the yuan by 3%. china says the economy grew at 70 -- 7% in the first half of the year. economists say it was more like 6.3%. the government has a full-year target of 7% as well. when we asked economist to give their full-year growth rate, they came up with growth of 6.6% this year. even at 7%, china's economy is heading for itsof annual growth in a quarter century. virgin australia is launching a business class today. we are at the launch at sydney domestic airport. thank you. i am here with the chief executive who has just unveiled the new business class suites on their plane. -- why did the airlines fight so hard over these passen