The Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) of China's manufacturing sector dropped to 53.9 percent in December, down 1.3 percentage points from November, the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing said Saturday.
, k! E2 i2 f+ e* w The figure marked the 22nd straight month that the index was above the boom-and-bust line of 50 percent. Before dropping in December, the index had been rising for four consecutive months.1 C5 Q3 y. U; U4 M2 W$ A
It was a delayed response to dropping commodity prices in November as the November PMI did not reflect that trend, said Liu Tiejun, an analyst with Haitong Securities." _! A7 U) P3 X( l
The PMI includes a package of indices to measure performance of the country's manufacturing sector. A reading above 50 percent indicates economic expansion, while that below 50 percent indicates contraction. |