China’s manufacturing sector showed signs of stabilizing in April, mainly because of increased exports, but the activity was, however, contracted for the sixth consecutive month, according to the final figure of the Purchasing Managers’ Index at HSBC.
The figure last month was 49.3 against 48.3 in March, thus remaining below the 50 that separates contraction from growth. This final figure is slightly better than estimated figure of 49.1.
This contrasts with the official PMI released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Tuesday. Conducted among purchasing managers of large companies, the official PMI stood at 53.3 in April, its highest in 13 months, highlighting the divergence between large and small companies in China.