Beijing, Mar 31 (UNI) After becoming the first major market to be completely shut down to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus last month, China has begun manufacturing, South China Morning Post reported on Tuesday.
The official manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) – a survey of sentiment among factory owners in the world’s second-largest economy – was 52 in March, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Tuesday.
The data was up from an all-time low of 35.7 in February. A reading of 50 shows growth in the manufacturing economy, while the further below 50, the deeper the contraction. March’s reading was much higher than the median prediction of a poll of analysts conducted by Bloomberg, which expected 44.8.
China’s non-manufacturing PMI – a gauge of sentiment in the services and construction sectors – also recovered to 52.3 from 29.6 in February, another record low. This reading was well above the Bloomberg analysts’ forecast of 42.0.
In a statement accompanying the data, an NBS spokesman attributed the positive PMI to the successful efforts to reopen large parts of the Chinese economy.
“As of March 25, the resumption rate of large and medium-sized enterprises was 96.6 per cent, an increase of 17.7 per cent from the survey results on February 25,” an NBS statement said.
“We cannot say China's economy has fully returned to normal levels based on a single month. We need to continue observing changes in the following months.”
However, with the global economy now in a tailspin, the recovery may be relatively short-lived. Most analysts are expecting a prolonged slump worldwide.
Meanwhile, China's health authority on Tuesday said that no new domestically transmitted cases of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) were reported on its mainland on Monday.

The National Health Commission received reports of 48 new confirmed cases on the mainland on Monday, all of which were imported.
UNI XC-RHK0901