Economic activity picking up in China

Edited and translated by People's Daily Online

China’s Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) rose 0.2 percentage points to 53.3 in April, above its level a year earlier, according to statistics jointly released by the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing (CFLP) and the National Bureau of Statistics' Services Survey Center on May 1. It was the index’s fifth straight monthly increase, indicating that the country’s economic activity is picking up steadily.

As for the 11 PMI sub-indices, the sub-indices of production, new export orders, and supplier delivery times all posted an increase from the previous month in April, with the production sub-index up two percentage points. The employment sub-index stayed flat from the previous month, while the remaining seven sub-indices fell month over month.

The April PMI reading showed several characteristics of China’s economic activity, the CFLP said.

The manufacturing sector is improving steadily. Of the 21 manufacturing industries, 16 industries recorded PMI readings above 50 percent in April, including the non-metallic mineral products and steel industries that previously ebbed, showing that investment activity in infrastructure construction is picking up.

Production is steadily gaining speed. The production sub-index rose two percentage points to 57.2 in April, its highest level since last January, while the finished goods inventory sub-index dropped 1.1 percentage points to 49.5, showing that accelerated production did not result in an increase in the inventory of finished goods.

The export is also improving steadily. The improvement in global demand lifted the new export orders sub-index to 52.2, up 0.3 percentage point from March. The PMI reading for domestic export enterprises stayed flat at 53.6 in April, above the average level of the country’s manufacturing industries. The new orders sub-index for export enterprises continued to stay above 50.