BEIJING, March 2 (Xinhua) -- Over 80 percent of China's large and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises have resumed operation amid the national fight against the novel coronavirus outbreak, the Xinhua-run cnstock.com reported on Monday.
Analysts noted that despite the sharp decline of purchasing managers' index (PMI) for China's manufacturing and non-manufacturing sectors in February, the data in March is expected to witness a significant recovery as the country has rolled out a series of policies to support production.
According to the statistics released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on February 29, China's manufacturing PMI stood at 35.7 in February, down from 50 in January. The non-manufacturing PMI came in at 29.6 in February, down from 54.1 in January.
“The sharp decline reflects that the novel coronavirus outbreak has delivered a temporary negative impact on China’s economy,” said Zhang Liqun, research fellow at the Macroeconomic Department of the Development Research Center of the State Council.
Li Chao, chief macro-analyst of Huatai Securities, said that as China has taken unprecedented measures to contain the spread of the novel coronovirus, temporary drop of PMI is well within the expectation. There is no need to be too pessimistic about the economy.
As the central government has rolled out a series of measures to coordinate the control of novel coronovirus and economic development, enterprises have gradually resumed operation in an orderly manner.
Statistics from the NBS showed that as of February 25, 78.9 percent of the large and medium-sized enterprises have restored work, while 85.6 percent of the large and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises have resumed operation.
Zhu Jianfang, the chief economist of CITIC Securities, pointed out that the large-scale enterprises' resumption of work is expected to play a role of "ballast stone" in safeguarding economic stability.
Zhang Jun, chief economist with Morgan Stanley Huaxin Securities, predicted that with the resumption of production, the PMI of the manufacturing and service sectors in China is likely to rise to more than 40 percent in March.
The macro economy research team of Huatai Securities believed that March PMI is likely to rise above the expansion-contraction line of 50 and even to a higher level. (Edited by Zhang Yuan, zhangyuan11@xinhua.org)
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