The Chinese Purchasing Managers’ Index for the non-manufacturing sector rose to 55.2 in the month of May, the country’s National Bureau of Statistics said on Monday.
This showed an increase of 0.3 per cent from the figure recorded in April.
According to NBS, a reading above 50 indicates expansion, while a reading below that reflects contraction.
The NBS Senior Statistician, Zhao Qinghe, was quoted as saying that the expansion reflected a faster recovery in the services sector as epidemic control efforts paid off and consumption demand continued to increase, boosted by the Labour Day holiday.
In the month under review, the sub-index for business activities in the services sector stood at 54.3, down 0.1 per cent points reported in April.
Further breakdown showed that the sub-indexes for business activities in railway and air transportation, accommodation, telecommunications and satellite transmission as well as culture, sports and entertainment came in at above 60, indicating rapid growth of business volume in these sectors.
The data however showed that the PMI for China’s manufacturing sector came in at 51 in May, down from 51.1 in April.
