BEIJING–Activity in China’s factories continued to expand in December, thanks to faster production and increased orders from global markets, according to a key leading indicator.
The official manufacturing purchasing managers’ index remained unchanged at 50.2 in December, indicating an expansion of activity for the second straight month after showing contractions for six months in a row, the National Bureau of Statistics said Tuesday.
The key gauge of manufacturing activity was above the 50 mark, which separates expansion from contraction, and beat the 50.0 median forecast from a Wall Street Journal poll of economists.
The production subindex rose to 53.2 in December, compared with 52.6 in November. The subindex for total new orders slipped to 51.2, compared with November’s 51.3 but the new export orders subindex rebounded strongly to 50.3 in December, above the 50 mark for the first time in more than a year.
China’s non-manufacturing PMI, also released Tuesday, fell to 53.5 in December, compared with 54.4 in November.
— Grace Zhu
