China's purchasing managers' index (PMI) for its domestic manufacturing sector was at 50.4 percent in January, down 0.2 percentage points compared to December last year, according to the figures released by China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on February 1.

As regards the various sub-indices, in the given month the production index for China’s manufacturing sector decreased by 0.7 percentage points month on month to 51.3 percent, while the new order index for the sector at 51.6 percent was up 0.4 percentage points compared to the previous month, reaching the highest level since May last year. The raw material inventory index for China’s manufacturing sector was 50.1 percent, indicating a month-on-month increase of 2.8 points and rising above 50 percent for the first time since May 2011.

Also in January, the input price index of the main raw materials for the Chinese manufacturing sector was up 3.9 percentage points to 57.2 percent from a month earlier. The employment index for China’s manufacturing sector stood at 47.8 percent, down 1.2 percentage points compared to December last year, while the supplier delivery time index for China’s manufacturing sector was at 50.0 percent.

Meanwhile, in January, the input price index of main raw materials for the Chinese ferrous metal smelting and processing sector was above 60 percent. Significantly, in January the expectation index for production and operating activities of the Chinese manufacturing sector stood at 55.9 percent, indicating the optimism of Chinese manufacturing enterprises on the outlook for their production and operations in the coming three months.