The Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) of China's manufacturing sector rose for a fifth straight month in April to 53.5, up 1.1 points from a month earlier, the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing (CFLP) said on Friday.
Experts have expressed the view that the rebound of the PMI signifies that the Chinese economy will continue its recovery in the second quarter of 2009. Apart from the indices measuring finished product inventory and raw materials inventory, all the other April indices rose compared with March levels. However, most of the increases were by less than two points. In April, indices measuring output, new orders and new export orders rose by 0.5, 2.0 and 1.6 points respectively; meanwhile the purchasing price index in April was up 3.0 points month on month to 51.3 percent, rising above 50 percent for the first time since September 2008.