China’s manufacturing expanded for a second month as government stimulus spending stoked a fledgling recovery in the world’s third-biggest economy.
The Purchasing Manager’s Index rose to a seasonally adjusted 53.5 last month from 52.4 in March, the Federation of Logistics and Purchasing said yesterday in Beijing in an e-mailed statement. A reading above 50 indicates an expansion.
“The worst is already behind China,” said Sun Mingchun (孫明春), an economist at Nomura Holdings Inc in Hong Kong. “Domestic strength should outweigh the tougher external environment.”
In the manufacturing data, the output index rose to 57.4 from 56.9 in March, the new order index climbed to 56.6 from 54.6 and the export order index increased to 49.1 from 47.5.
Signs that the Chinese economy is reviving because of the government’s 4 trillion yuan (US$586 billion) stimulus package include a 30 percent increase in urban fixed-asset investment in March from a year earlier. New loans more than tripled to a record 4.58 trillion yuan in the first quarter. Growth in industrial output accelerated in March.
In yesterday’s numbers, the employment index climbed to 50.3 from 48.6 in March. The overall manufacturing index has gained for five months after falling in November to its lowest level since the data began in 2005.
The latest numbers show that “China’s economy will continue to recover,” Zhang Liqun (張立群), an economist at the State Council Development and Research Center, said in a statement released with the data.
Investment bank Goldman Sachs said in a note that the latest figure “sends a clear signal that real economic activity growth has been improving on a sequential basis from its trough last November.”
Goldman Sachs said the Chinese economy will grow 8.3 percent this year even as countries from the US to Japan are mired in recessions.
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