Points from the South China Morning Post: China’s service sector signals reviving growth as PMI hits 4-month high
- China’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) for the non-manufacturing sector rose to a four-month high of 56.1 in December from 55.6 in November
- The greatest driver was a jump in a sub-index measuring construction services, to 61.9 from 61.3 last month, while industries including transport slumped
- China’s fast-growing services industry has so far weathered the global slowdown much better than the factory sector
- China’s service sector generated 43 per cent of China’s GDP in 2010 and by last year provided nearly 36 per cent of new jobs, exceeding the agricultural sector for the first time.
“Expanding domestic demand will be a major stimulus for China’s economic growth, and the greatest potential will come from the service sector,” Xia Nong, deputy director-general of the Department of Industry under the National Development and Reform Commission- Foreign investment into the service sector of US$47.57 billion in the first 11 months of this year surpassed that directed to the manufacturing industry, which slumped by 7.1 per cent
