BEIJING, Nov. 2 (Xinhua) -- The Caixin China manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI) for October came to 50.1, up 0.1 percentage point from September, indicating China's manufacturing sector slightly expanded.
The indexes for new orders, inventory purchasing and input price kept growing in the area of expansion, while indexes for new export orders, employment and finished product inventory recovered in the area of contraction.
Employment number continued to stay in the contraction area, but with the smallest margin in five months. Input cost remained on the upward trend, mainly due to the rise in prices of raw materials led by steels. As a result, manufactures lifted the ex-factory prices for 17 consecutive months, but the increase was not enough to offset the growth of input cost, further squeezing their profit space.
In addition, the manufacturing sector's confidence for next 12 months dropped to the lowest level in 11 months, but respondents generally believe the output will grow in the future.
(Edited by Yang Qi, kateqiyang@xinhua.org)
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