China's manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) edged up to 50.3 per cent in November, marking a slight acceleration in manufacturing activity compared to the previous month, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. Large enterprises experienced a slight contraction with a PMI of 50.9 per cent, while medium-sized enterprises improved to 50.0 per cent. Small enterprises continued to face challenges, staying below the critical point at 49.1 per cent. Among the five key components of the manufacturing PMI, the production index and new order index both rose above the critical point, signalling stronger production activities and increased market demand. In the manufacturing PMI classification indexes, the production, new order, and supplier delivery time indexes are above the critical point, while the raw materials inventory and employee indexes are below it. The production index increased to 52.4 per cent, showing accelerated production activities. The new order index rose to 50.8 per cent, indicating an improvement in market demand. The raw materials inventory index remained at 48.2 per cent, signalling a decrease in raw material inventory. The employment index decreased to 48.2 per cent, suggesting a decline in employment climate. The supplier delivery time index increased to 50.2 per cent up 0.6 percentage points from the previous month and above the critical point, indicating that the delivery time of raw material suppliers in the manufacturing industry has accelerated. Attribution: The National Bureau of Statistics of China report Subediting: M. S. Salama
