Reference:ChinaDaily | Updated:2 Oct 2020
China's manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI) increased to 51.5 in September, 0.5 percentage points higher from 51.0 in August, official data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on Wednesday.
The number met the expectation by Bloomberg and beat the Reuters' forecast of 51.2. A reading above 50 indicates an expansion in activity on a monthly basis.
Meanwhile, the non-manufacturing PMI rose to 55.9 in September from 55.2 in August, beating expectations by Bloomberg at 54.9.
Growth in China's services sector accelerated in September as the business activity index was 55.2 percent, 0.9 percentage points higher than the previous month and rising for two consecutive months, Zhao Qinghe, a senior statistician with the bureau, explained in a statement (in Chinese).
He further explained that in terms of market demand and expectations, the new order index and business activity expectation index were 53.5 percent and 62.2 percent, respectively, 2.0 and 0.9 percentage points higher than last month, respectively, indicating that the service industry market demand is picking up and business confidence is further strengthened.
Meanwhile, with the continued recovery of supply and demand and the advent of the traditional production peak season, companies have increased their willingness to purchase, Zhao mentioned.
From the perspective of the industry, the production index and new order index of food and beverages, general equipment, special equipment, computer communication and electronic equipment, are all above 55.0 percent, higher than the previous month, he noted.
Thanks to a series of foreign trade measures and the partial recovery of international market demand, manufacturing imports and exports have further improved, with September's new export order index and import index rising above the boom-bust line of 50 for the first time this year, according to Zhao. However, he warned that because the pandemic has not yet been fully controlled, there are still uncertain factors regarding imports and exports.
In addition, with the National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival holiday approaching, the new order index of the consumer goods industry was 53.7 percent, 2.9 percentage points higher than last month, indicating an accelerated growth of product orders of enterprises.
Zhao reminded that although overall manufacturing demand has improved, the recovery is uneven. The survey results showed that more than half of companies in such fields as textiles, clothing and wood processing reflected insufficient market demand.
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