The recovery in China’s manufacturing sector has lost some momentum in April, according to a key economic indicator.
Beijing’s statistics office said on Tuesday that the Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) fell from 50.8 to 50.4 points in April.
However, this was the second month in a row that the index was above the critical 50-point mark, above which an expansion in industrial activity is to be expected.
According to official figures, China’s economy started the New Year stronger than expected.
As the statistics office announced in mid-April, growth in the first quarter was 5.3 per cent compared to the first three months of the previous year.
At the annual People’s Congress in March, the government set a growth target of around 5 per cent, which some observers considered ambitious given the state of the economy.
Analysts said that the crisis on the property market and persistently weaken domestic consumption were holding the Chinese economy back.
