Guangzhou (JLC), July 4, 2023 -- China's manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI) came in at 49% in June, up from 48.8% in May, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced on June 30.
The monthly increase indicated a marginal improvement in China’s manufacturing sector, the NBS said.
However, the manufacturing PMI has been below the 50% mark – a line that separates growth from contraction – for three months in a row since April, meaning that the manufacturing industry still faced an uphill battle.
A breakdown of the June figures showed that the sub-index for production stood at 50.3%, a month-on-month increase of 0.7 percentage points, signaling that production activities accelerated in the month.
The sub-index for new orders rose to 48.6%, up 0.3 percentage points on month, showing that market demand improved somewhat in June.
Meanwhile, the sub-indexes for raw material inventories, employment, and distributor delivery time came in at 47.4%, 48.2% and 50.4% respectively, the NBS data shows, a drop of 0.2, 0.2 and 0.1 percentage points from May, the NBS data shows.
Non-Manufacturing PMI Inches Down
The non-manufacturing PMI came in at 53.2%, down from 54.5% in May, but was still above the critical line, suggesting the non-manufacturing sector was still expanding, but at a slower pace in June.
The commercial activity indexes for the aviation transportation, courier services, insurances were above 60% in June, suggesting high prosperity for those sectors. While the indexes for wholesale, real estate and residential services were all below the critical 50% mark, the NBS said.
