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Factory activity last month just slightly higher
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China’s manufacturing activity at private and export-oriented companies expanded only slightly faster in September than in August.
The HSBC Purchasing Managers’ Index, a comprehensive gauge of operating conditions at such companies, settled at 50.2 in September, significantly below the flash estimate of 51.2, compared to 50.1 a month earlier.
A reading above 50 means expansion.
Qu Hongbin, chief economist for China at HSBC, said: “New orders remained flat from the previous month, while external demand improved. Manufacturers’ restocking process continued but remained relatively low.
“Growth is bottoming out on China’s mini-stimulus.”
Qu said he expected continuous policy efforts to sustain the recovery.
The component indexes showed that production expanded for the second consecutive month, though the rate of growth slowed. And growth of new work was unchanged from the previous month.
Despite the small increase, HSBC said it was a positive development, with the PMI reading signaling a further improvement on July’s 47.7, which was an 11-month low.
Zhu Haibin, China chief economist at JPMorgan, said the reading was further evidence of the ongoing economic recovery.
“The stronger-than-expected economic data in July and August, plus the still solid reading in the PMI, point to the upside risk to our economic forecast for third quarter, which is 7.6 percent year on year,” Zhu said.
China’s gross domestic product expanded 7.5 percent from a year earlier in the second quarter, the slowest in more than 12 months.
So far this year, policy-makers have unveiled a raft of measures to bolster the economy, including financial aid for exporters, encouraging spending in infrastructure, and cutting taxes for small businesses.
As a result, nearly all activity data, including trade, industrial production, fixed-asset investment and retail sales, showed upbeat results since July.
Major international financial institutions, including Deutsche Bank, Citigroup and Merrill Lynch, have raised their projections for China’s economic growth.
The National Bureau of Statistics is due to release the official manufacturing PMI, sampling mainly state-owned companies, today.
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