China economy shows positive growth trend with the manufacturing PMI rebounded to 50.2% in 2025 Feb

According to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on March 1, China's manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI) reached 50.2% in February, while the non-manufacturing business activity index and the composite PMI output index rose to 50.4% and 51.1% respectively. Experts pointed out that these three indexes are all in the expansion range, indicating that the overall prosperity of China's economy has improved.

Manufacturing industry sees the dawn of recovery

Zhao Qinghe, senior statistician of the National Bureau of Statistics, said that as enterprises gradually resumed production after the Spring Festival holiday, the manufacturing PMI rebounded significantly in February, up 1.1 percentage points from the previous month, and re-entered the expansion period.

Both production and demand increased. The production index and new order index were 52.5% and 51.1% respectively, up 2.7 and 1.9 percentage points from the previous month, respectively, indicating that both production and demand in the manufacturing industry have improved. In particular, in industries such as non-ferrous metal smelting, general equipment and electrical machinery and equipment, both indexes exceeded 54.0%, showing a rapid growth momentum.

Raw material prices continued to rise. The main raw material purchase price index was 50.8%, up 1.3 percentage points from the previous month, indicating that the raw material costs of manufacturing enterprises have increased.

Large enterprises performed strongly. Large enterprises quickly resumed normal operations after the holiday, and their PMI value was 52.5%, an increase of 2.6 percentage points from the previous month.

The PMI of key industries generally rose. The PMIs of equipment manufacturing and high-tech manufacturing were 50.8% and 50.9%, respectively, up 0.6 and 1.6 percentage points from before.

Wen Tao, an analyst at the China Logistics Information Center, said that the sub-item data showed that after the Spring Festival, the manufacturing industry quickly resumed production, market demand generally increased, production and procurement activities increased significantly, raw material prices rose but the downward trend of finished product prices slowed down, the role of large enterprises became increasingly important, enterprises were optimistic about the future, and the overall economy showed a positive trend.

Non-manufacturing industry continues to expand

The non-manufacturing business activity index was 50.4% in February, up 0.2 percentage points from the previous month, indicating that the non-manufacturing industry continued to expand. Especially in the construction sector, due to warmer weather and more project launches, the construction industry business activity index rose sharply to 65.1%.

In addition, financial-related activities were active and social financing demand was significantly released, indicating that the real economy has received effective financial support.

Economic Outlook

Experts such as Zhang Liqun believe that although current economic indicators show positive signals, attention should still be paid to the problem of insufficient demand, and suggest further strengthening macroeconomic policy regulation to consolidate the foundation for economic recovery.

It is expected that market supply and demand will continue to expand in the future, especially driven by innovation, which is expected to promote high-quality economic development.