China manufacturing expands in April

BEIJING - China's Purchasing Managers Index (PMI), a preliminary readout of manufacturing activities, rose in April for five consecutive months, latest data showed Tuesday.

The PMI climbed to 53.3 percent in April 2012, 0.2 percentage point higher compared to that in March, the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing (CFLP) said.

The federation said the April PMI was higher compared to the same period last year, which stood at 52.9 percent.

From November to March, PMI saw steady increases from 49 percent to 50.3 percent, 50.5 percent, 51 percent, and 53.1 percent. A reading of 50 percent demarcates expansion from contraction.

"The continuous rebound of PMI shows that China's economic growth is in a stable and upbeat condition," CFLP vice chairman Cai Jin said.

The sub-index for raw material purchasing prices started to drop in April after rising continuously for four months. The data fell to 54.8 percent last month, down 1.1 percentage points compared to March.

Cai noted that the downward movement of the sub-index for purchasing prices had signaled that price pressure would to some extent decline from previous high levels.

The sub-index for manufacturing rose to 57.2 percent in April, up 2 percentage points from March, the federation said.

The sub-index for new export orders hit 52.2 percent, up 0.3 percentage point from March. However, the sub-index for new orders fell 0.6 percentage point to 54.5 percent, the federation said.

The sub-index for large and medium-sized enterprises rose 0.3 percentage point to 53.7 percent, which was a major boost to the overall reading of PMI in April, the federation said.

Meanwhile, the sub-index for small enterprises fell 1.8 percentage points to 49.1 percent, the CFLP data showed.

Currently, the CFLP measures PMI for the manufacturing sector based on 820 sample companies nationwide.

The country plans to expand the sample size to around 3,000 companies, according to a previous statement from the National Bureau of Statistics and the CFLP, which, however, have not specified any timetable.