Asia's factories struggle for growth as China, Japan falter

Asia's major manufacturing economies struggled to claw their way out of decline in February with Japan particularly squeezed by a steeper fall in demand while an uneven recovery in China overshadowed some signs of improvement elsewhere in the region.

A raft of business surveys released on Friday highlighted a patchy performance across Asia with Japan's manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI) showing factory activity falling at the fastest pace in more than three years.