China’s factory activity in February continues to pick up as enterprises across the country steadily resumed work and production after the Spring Festival holidays, indicating an improved market demand, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Tuesday.
According to newly released data from the NBS, the country’s manufacturing Purchasing Manager Index (PMI) reached 50.2 in February, up 0.1 percentage point compared with the previous month, continuously remaining above the critical 50-mark.
Both the demand and supply sides have been expanding in February following a slowdown in January as a result of the Spring Festival holidays, showing that the release of the market demand in the manufacturing sector has been accelerated following the holiday period, NBS senior statistician Zhao Qinghe said.
On one hand, the growth in PMI shows that the implementation of “stay put” policy in many places has a certain promotion effect on industrial production, according to analysts from the Zhixin Investment Research Institute.
On the other hand, the growth also shows that policies targeting to ensure the stable growth of the country’s economy starting to show effect. The manufacturing industry in February showed that the production remained stable with the internal and external demand improving.
Meanwhile, the price index rose significantly impacted by the surging price of raw materials for products such as oil and coal, leading to a faster increase in product sales prices.
Moreover, the process of industrial restructuring is steadily advancing, with the figures for high-tech manufacturing and equipment manufacturing reaching 53.1 and 51.4, up 1.2 and 1.1 percentage points respectively.
Enterprises’ expectations for the industry continued to rebound following responsible authorities issuing a range of supportive measures and policies to promote the steady development of the nation’s industrial economy.
Zhao however noted that enterprises are still facing multiple challenges in production and operation, such as the high cost of raw materials and labors, stating that it is still important to implement policies to assist enterprises to alleviate difficulties in a bid to ensure a stale growth of the industry backed up by targeted support.
The country’s composite PMI stood at 51.2, up 0.2 percent month-on-month, showing that the expansion of production and business activities of Chinese enterprises has accelerated.
Industry PMI Photo:VCG
