China December PMI Flat Barely Above Expansion

China’s Purchasing Managers’ Index for the manufacturing sector remained at 50.6 percent in December, China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing (CFLP) said Tuesday.

It was the third consecutive month the PMI figure was above 50 percent, which demarcates expansion from contraction, the CFLP said in a report.

In November, the figure rose to 50.6 percent from 50.2 percent in October.

Cai Jin, CFLP vice chairman, said the continued expansion suggested a moderate economic recovery trend and a positive start for the new year’s economy.

Most of the sub-indices saw gains, with the sub-index for input prices up 3.2 percentage points to 53.3 percent from a month earlier.

However, four sub-indices, including new export order and output sub-index, witnessed slight month-on-month declines, all within one percentage point.

The PMI data is based on a survey of purchasing managers in more than 820 companies and 20 industries.

The December data has shown improvement in enterprises’ operations, as the PMI figure for large firms stayed above 50 percent for four straight months. Small and micro-enterprises rose 2 percentage points to 48.1 percent last month, according to the CFLP.

via Xinhua

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Alfonso Esparza

Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse
Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.
Alfonso Esparza