In March this year, the China Caixin Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) indicated a final reading of 51.0, down 0.6 percentage points compared to the final reading for February, as announced by Beijing-based Caixin media group.
Zhong Zhengsheng, chief economist with China Economic and Business Monitor (CEBM), part of Caixin Insight Group, said that the improvement in demand not being as good as market players had expected resulted in a decline in the Caixin PMI in March.
Meanwhile, as announced by China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the purchasing managers' index (PMI) for China’s manufacturing sector was at 51.5 percent in March, up 1.2 percentage points compared to the previous month.