A woman works at a textile company in Nantong, east China's Jiangsu province, Feb 24, 2023. (PHOTO / XINHUA)
BEIJING – China's manufacturing activity has maintained expansion for two straight months, the latest sign of faster economic recovery, official data showed.
The purchasing managers' index (PMI) for China's manufacturing sector came in at 52.6 in February, up from 50.1 in January, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Wednesday in a statement.
Thanks to government pro-growth measures and the fading COVID impact, factory production and market activity returned to normalcy at a quicker pace last month, indicating continued improvement in the economic climate, the NBS's senior statistician Zhao Qinghe said
A reading above 50 indicates expansion, while a reading below 50 reflects contraction.
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Thanks to government pro-growth measures and the fading COVID impact, factory production and market activity returned to normalcy at a quicker pace last month, indicating continued improvement in the economic climate, the bureau's senior statistician Zhao Qinghe said.
Breaking down the headline figure, the production index gained 6.9 percentage points from a month earlier to 56.7, suggesting expedited production, and market demand also kept rising as the new orders index reached 54.1, up 3.2 percentage points.
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The PMIs for large, medium-sized, and small enterprises stood at 53.7, 52 and 51.2, respectively, all well above the boom-and-bust line.
Non-manufacturing PMI also up
Wednesday's data also revealed that the PMI for China's non-manufacturing sector came in at 56.3 in February, up from 54.4 in January.
The service sector maintained expansion in February thanks to accelerated business recovery after the Spring Festival, with the sub-index for business activities reaching 55.6, up from 54 in January, NBS data showed.
The sub-indexes for business activities in road and air transport, postal service and accommodation all stood above 60, indicating active market activities and rising business volume.
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The sub-index of the construction sector stood at 60.2 in February, up from 56.4 in January, as work resumption in construction projects nationwide began last month.
Demand in the non-manufacturing market also recovered, with the sub-index for new orders rising 3.3 percentage points from January to 55.8 in February.