Chinese manufacturing activity continued to improve in April, with an important index remaining in expansion territory, official data showed on Friday. The manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI), a key measure of factory activity in China, posted at 50.1 in April, unchanged from the March reading but up from 49.9 in February, according to the data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing (CFLP). 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. Zhao Qinghe, a senior analyst with the NBS, said China’s manufacturing PMIs in the last three months lingered around the expansion/contraction threshold, but some PMI sub-indices in April showed encouraging signs. The production sub-index posted at 52.6, the highest monthly reading since November last year, he said. The […]