(Reporting by Ellen Zhang, Roxanne Liu and Ryan Woo; Editing by Shri Navaratnam and William Mallard)
Reuters Messaging: roxanne.liu@thomsonreuters.com)) BEIJING, April 30 (Reuters) - China's manufacturing
activity unexpectedly shrank in April, official data showed on
Sunday, exacerbating the challenge for an economy in the midst
of a patchy post-COVID recovery with slack global demand and a
still-wobbly domestic property sector.
The official manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI)
was 49.2, down from 51.9 in March, according to data from the
National Bureau of Statistics, below the 50-point mark that
separates expansion and contraction in activity on a monthly
basis. The outcome was below a forecast of 51.4.
The world's second-largest economy grew faster than expected
in the first quarter, driven by pent-up consumption demand after
the end of COVID-19 curbs, but factory output lagged amid weak
global growth.
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