The Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for China’s manufacturing sector came in at 50.1 per cent in November, up 0.9 percentage point month-on-month, according to the country’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
The figure is slightly above the threshold of 50 per cent, a baseline to indicate an increase or decline of business conditions, signaling the country’s economy has overall improved, reported Economic Information Daily on Wednesday.
Zhao Qinghe, senior statistician with the NBS, said the the manufacturing PMI went back to expansion territory thanks to the country’s measures to ensure adequate energy supply and stable market prices.
To be specific, the figures showed that both production and market demand in the manufacturing sector were on an upturn last month, with manufacturing sub-index standing at 52 per cent, up 3.6 percentage points month-on-month, while new order index hitting 49.4 per cent, indicating a stronger demand.
Besides, the sub-index measuring purchase prices of major raw materials dropped 19.2 percentage points from October to 52.9 in November, the ex-factory price index fell to 48.9, down 12.2 percentage points from last month.
The new export order and import sub-indexes edged up to 48.5 and 48.1, respectively, the new export order index of industries such as medicine, automobile, mechanical equipment all witnessed an increase of over 3.0 percentage points respectively.
Zheng Houcheng with Yingda Securities, said “The figure climbing above the threshold of 50 mainly attributes to the surge of manufacturing index.”
A highlight is that the PMI for small enterprises came in at 48.5, while that for medium enterprises at 51.2, the PMI for small enterprises edged up one per cent but was still under 50 per cent threshold, signifying a reduction of pressure.
According to Wen Bin, Chief Analyst of China Minsheng Bank, the national economy has become rosier thanks to a series of policy support to ensure supply and stabilize price, in addition, the improvement in the Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) manufacturing index is due to the country’s increasing support for the SMEs.
