The non-manufacturing measure of activity in construction and services rose to 50.5 from 50.3 last month, the National Bureau of Statistics said Monday. That compares with a forecast of 50.3.
“Manufacturing production activities accelerated and market demand improved,” Zhao Qinghe, a senior NBS statistician, said in a statement.The PMI figures are the first official data available each month to provide a snapshot of the Chinese economy. The latest reading captures the first full month after Beijing and Washington agreed to a 90-day truce in their trade war.
Overseas demand — which made up almost 40% of economic growth in the first quarter — is helping compensate for sluggish spending by consumers at home. But it also makes China more reliant on maintaining stable ties with trade partners such as the US, with whom Beijing just finalized a trade framework negotiated in Geneva.The pact codified the terms laid out in trade talks between the US and China, including a commitment from Beijing to deliver rare earths used in everything from wind turbines to jet planes.
The strength of Chinese manufacturing in the rest of the year remains in question given an uncertain export outlook, with a more lasting trade deal still elusive.
Several global banks, including Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc., recently raised forecasts for China’s growth in 2025 as the tariff truce improves confidence. Even so, economists surveyed by Bloomberg expect gross domestic product to expand 4.5% this year, significantly below the official target of around 5%.
President Donald Trump’s China envoy, David Perdue, recently warned that the US wants to revamp its trading relationship with China and the world by bringing many critical supply chains back onshore.
The US ambassador said American leaders had been “blind to the hollowing out of many US strategic industries,” a sign that trade tensions between the two nations could persist.
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