Guangzhou (JLC), January 31, 2024 – China's manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI) improved in the first month of 2024, but was still below the critical 50% mark, a line that separates growth from contraction, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced on January 31.
The manufacturing PMI came in at 49.2% in January, up 0.2 percentage points from December last year, the NBS data showed. The manufacturing PMI has been below the 50% mark for a fourth straight month.
A breakdown of January’s manufacturing PMI showed that the sub-index for production stood at 51.3%, a month-on-month gain of 1.1 percentage points, signaling that the production sector expanded faster.
The sub-index for new orders rose to 49.0%, up 0.3 percentage points on month, showing that the market demand improved somewhat.
Meanwhile, the sub-index for raw material inventories came in at 47.6%, down 0.1 percentage points month on month. The sub-index for employment stood at 47.6%, down 0.3 percentage points from the previous month. The sub-index for distributor delivery time stood at 50.8%, up 0.5 percentage points month on month.
Non-manufacturing index picks up
China’s non-manufacturing commercial index came in at 50.7% in January, up from 50.4% in December last year, suggesting that the non-manufacturing sector expanded at a faster pace than in the previous month, the NBS data indicated.
The commercial activity index for construction stood at 53.9%, down 3 percentage points month on month. The commercial activity index for services came in at 50.1%, up 0.8 percentage points from the previous month, the NBS data showed.
The commercial activity indexes for railway transport, postal services, monetary and financial services were all above 60% in January, suggesting high prosperity for these sectors.
However, the index for the property sector was still below the 50% mark, the NBS said.
