Guangzhou (JLC), April 30, 2024 – China's manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI) eased after climbing to 50.8% in March, hovering at the expansion zone for a second consecutive month, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed.
The manufacturing PMI dropped 0.4 percentage points month on month to 50.4% in April, suggesting that the industry was still expanding, albeit at a slower pace.
A breakdown of April’s manufacturing PMI showed that the sub-index for production stood at 52.9%, a month-on-month rise of 0.7 percentage points, signaling that the production activities gathered more strength.
The sub-index for new orders fell to 51.1% in April, indicating that the market demand eased somewhat, the NBS data showed.
Meanwhile, the sub-index for raw material inventories came in at 48.1%, unchanged from the previous month. The sub-index for employment and for distributor delivery time stood at 48.0% and 50.4%, down 0.1 and 0.2 percentage points, respectively, on a month-on-month basis.
Non-manufacturing index down
China’s non-manufacturing commercial index came in at 51.2% in April, down from 53.0% in March, suggesting that the non-manufacturing sector expanded at a slower pace, the NBS data indicated.
The commercial activity index for construction stood at 56.3%, up 0.1 percentage points month on month. The commercial activity index for services came in at 50.3%, down 2.1 percentage points from the previous month, the NBS data showed.
The commercial activity indexes for railway transport, road transport, postal services, broadcasting and television, satellite transmission services were all above 55% in April， suggesting high prosperity for these sectors.
However, the index for the property sector was still below the 50% mark, the NBS said.
