According to the latest monthly preview data issued by the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC), in August this year China's purchasing managers index (PMI) for the manufacturing sector and the manufacturing production index are 49.8 and 49.4 respectively, compared to 49.3 and 48.0 in July.
Qu Hongbin, head of the HSBC's Asia-Pacific region economic research center, stated that the preview PMI figure for August has slightly recovered to break-even level, which is in line with the year-on-year growth of the production index. Amid the global financial turmoil, China's new export order index has climbed to the highest level of the last three months, though still slightly under 50.
The HSBC releases the preview data for China's PMI once a month, a week before issuing the final data.