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![A woman works at a textile factory in Tai'an City, east China's Shandong Province, Oct. 18, 2014 [Xinhua]](http://thebricspost.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/234348017_8.jpg)
A woman works at a textile factory in Tai’an City, east China’s Shandong Province, Oct. 18, 2014 [Xinhua]
The manufacturing purchasing manager’s index (PMI), a key measure of factory activity in China, posted at 50.8 in October, down 0.3 percentage points from September, according to the data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing.
China is struggling to remain the powerhouse of the global economy, amid a sluggish world recovery.
A reading above 50 indicates expansion, while a reading below 50 represents contraction.
The NBS manufacturing PMI samples 3,000 enterprises of various sizes nationwide.
New export orders dipped by 0.3 percentage points to 49.9 and new orders index lost 0.6 percentage points to stand at 51.6.
“Despite the declines in the PMI, the reading remained above the expansion-contraction threshold and indicates China’s manufacturing sector was steady as the economy is entering a ‘new normal’,” said Zhao Qinghe, a senior NBS statistician.
The economy expanded 7.3 per cent in the third quarter.
China’s policymakers need to step up fiscal spending and targeted quantitative easing in the coming period to stabilize growth, says HSBC.
Though some economic indicators point to slower third-quarter growth for the Chinese economy, global banking giant HSBC has stuck to its growth forecast of 7.5-per cent growth for China in 2014.
“From a cyclical perspective, more monetary easing measures are needed to support the official growth target of 7.5 percent this year,” HSBC chief China economist Qu Hongbin said in a new report.
TBP and Agencies
