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In January 2017, China's manufacturing purchasing managers index (PMI) was 51.3 percent, a slight decrease of 0.1 percentage point over last month, continuing a steady expansion trend.
In view of the sizes of enterprises, the PMI of large-sized enterprises was 52.7 percent, decreased 0.5 percentage points over last month, and continued to be higher than the threshold; that of medium-sized enterprises was 50.8 percent, increased 1.2 percentage points over last month, and rose above the threshold; that of small-sized enterprises was 46.4 percent, decreased 0.8 percentage points, and continued to stay in the contraction range.
Among the five sub-indices composing PMI, the production index and new orders index were higher than the threshold. The employed person index, main raw materials inventory index and supplier delivery time index were lower than the threshold.
Production index was 53.1 percent, a decrease of 0.2 percentage points month-on-month, and was higher than the threshold, indicating that manufacturing production continued to keep growing, while the growth rate decreased slightly.
New orders index was 52.8 percent, decreased 0.4 percentage points month-on-month, and continued to be higher than the threshold, showing that the amount of increase of manufacturing market demand narrowed.
Employed person index was 49.2 percent, increased 0.3 percentage points month-on-month, but still in the contraction range, indicating that the labor employment of manufacturing enterprises decreased, while the pace of decline narrowed.
Main raw materials inventory index was 48.0 percent, unchanged compared with last month, and was below the threshold, indicating that the manufacturing main raw material inventory continued to decrease.
Supplier delivery time index was 49.8 percent, a decrease of 0.2 percentage points over last month, and dropped below the threshold, indicating that the delivery time of manufacturing raw material suppliers slowed down slightly.
