WASHINGTON/LONDON/TOKYO—Manufacturing growth is slowing worldwide as China’s COVID-19 curbs and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine disrupt supply chains and inflation continues to run at the highest in years, while the growing risk of a U.S. recession poses a new threat to the global economy.
Gauges of factory activity released Thursday in Japan, Britain, the euro zone, and United States all softened in June, with U.S. producers reporting the first outright drop in new orders in two years in the face of slumping consumer and business confidence.
S&P Global’s flash U.S. Composite PMI Output Index, which tracks the manufacturing and services sectors, dropped to 51.2 this month from a final reading of 53.6 in May and the slowest growth pace in five months. The manufacturing component dropped to 52.4, the lowest in nearly two years, from 57 in May and was notably weaker than the estimate of 56 in a Reuters poll of economists….