Guangzhou (JLC), March 1, 2024 – China's manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI) fell in February, staying below the critical 50% mark, a line that separates growth from contraction, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on March 1.
The manufacturing PMI came in at 49.1% in February, down 0.1 percentage points from January, the NBS data showed. The manufacturing PMI has been below the 50% mark for a fifth straight month.
A breakdown of February’s manufacturing PMI showed that the sub-index for production stood at 49.8%, a month-on-month decline of 1.5 percentage points, signaling that the production sector performed weaker and slipped into the contraction territory.
The sub-index for new orders remained flat at 49.0% in February, the NBS data showed.
Meanwhile, the sub-index for raw material inventories came in at 47.4%, down 0.2 percentage points month on month. The sub-index for employment and for distributor delivery time stood at 47.5% and 48.8%, down 0.1 and 2.0 percentage points, respectively, from the previous month.
Non-manufacturing index extends gains
China’s non-manufacturing commercial index came in at 51.4% in February, up from 50.7% in January, suggesting that the non-manufacturing sector expanded at a faster pace, the NBS data indicated.
The commercial activity index for construction stood at 53.5%, down 0.4 percentage points month on month. The commercial activity index for services came in at 51.0%, up 0.9 percentage points from the previous month, the NBS data showed.
The commercial activity indexes for road transport, aviation, catering, sports and entertainment were all above 55% in February, suggesting high prosperity for these sectors.
However, the index for the property sector was still below the 50% mark, the NBS said.
