China's manufacturing sector shows steady growth in March 2023: NBS

03 Apr '23

1 min read

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Insights

China's manufacturing sector continued to expand for the third consecutive month in March 2023, with a PMI reading of 51.9.
The production and new orders indexes also showed strong growth, with 13 out of 21 surveyed industries seeing stable expansion.
Despite challenges such as tight capital and high operating costs, market confidence improved significantly.

China's manufacturing sector has shown sustained expansion for the third consecutive month in March 2023, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). The purchasing managers' index (PMI) for the sector stood at 51.9, slightly lower than the previous month's figure of 52.6, but still indicative of growth as any number above 50 represents expansion.

The production and new orders indexes for the sector also showed strong growth, with scores of 54.6 and 53.6, respectively, indicating that the sector is doing well overall. Among the 21 industries surveyed, 13 saw stable expansion month on month, including the consumer goods sector.

While large, medium-sized, and small enterprises all showed expansion, some enterprises are still struggling with tight capital and high operating costs, and the foundation of the economic recovery needs to be consolidated, said Chinese media reports quoting NBS’ senior statistician Zhao Qinghe.

Despite these challenges, market confidence improved significantly, with the business outlook index at 55.5, indicating optimism shared by all surveyed industries. The Chinese economy has been recovering at a faster pace since the beginning of the year, thanks to government pro-growth measures such as expanding domestic demand, modernising the industrial system, and attracting foreign investment.

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