Guangzhou (JLC), September 1, 2025--China's manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI) improved slightly in August, but was still below the critical 50% mark, a line that separates growth from contraction, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on August 30.
The manufacturing PMI came in at 49.4% in August, edging up 0.1 percentage points from July, the NBS data showed. The manufacturing PMI has been below the 50% mark for the fifth straight month.
A breakdown of August’s manufacturing PMI showed that the sub-index for production stood at 50.8%, a month-on-month gain of 0.3 percentage points, signaling that the production sector expanded faster.
On the demand side, the sub-index for new orders reached 49.5%, up from 49.4% in the previous month.
Meanwhile, the sub-index for raw material inventories came in at 48.0%, up 0.3 percentage points from the prior month. The sub-index for employment stood at 47.9%, down 0.1 percentage points. The sub-index for distributor delivery time reached 50.5%, up 0.2 percentage points.
Non-manufacturing index picks up
China’s non-manufacturing commercial index came in at 50.3% last month, up from 50.1% in July, 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 49.1%, down 1.5 percentage points month on month. The commercial activity index for services came in at 50.5%, up 0.5 percentage points from the prior month, the NBS data showed.
The commercial activity indexes for railway transport, water transport, air transport, telecommunications, broadcasting and satellite transmission services, and capital market services were all above 60% in August, suggesting high prosperity for these sectors.
However, the indexes for the retail and property sectors were still below the 50% mark, the NBS said.
