China’s official Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) for the month of June marks the second highest reading for the metric since the start of 2017 as demand spurs economic activity.
The official PMI figure released by China’s National Bureau of Statistics for the month of June is 51.7%, for a gain of 0.5 percentage points compared to the preceding month.
Chen Zhongtao, researcher with the China Logistics Information Center, said to Caixin that June increase ran contrary to historical seasonal trends, and that the June PMI is the second highest for this year after March.
Chen said that the Q2 PMI reading indicates that the Chinese economy has entered a stable phase, and that performance has been essentially consistent across the first half. He expects this stability to persist until the year’s end, for full year growth of approximately 6.8%.
Amongst PMI sub-indices demand posted a strong rebound, with new orders rising to above 53% for a gain of 0.8 percentage points on May, and the most sizeable month-on-month increase in the past eight months.
External demand built further upon its strong performance since the beginning of the year. While the new export order index has remained above 50% through 2017, it June is saw a sharp increase of 1.3 percentage points to pierce the rarely breached threshold of 52%.
Manufacturing growth rose to 54% for its highest level since December 2013, with equipment manufacturing and hi-tech manufacturing amongst the strongest performers, indicating a shift the sector towards higher end product.
