(Yicai) April 30 -- Activity in China's manufacturing sector contracted in April after two months of expansion, while the non-manufacturing activity continued to grow.

The manufacturing purchasing managers' index came in at 49 this month, down from 50.5 in March and 50.2 in February, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics today. A reading below 50 indicates contraction.

The decline is due to changes in the external environment, a high base in the previous period due to a rapid growth in manufacturing, and other factors, said Zhao Qinghe, senior statistician at the NBS.

Both production and demand shrank in April. The production and new orders sub-indexes dropped to 49.8 and 49.2 from 52.6 and 51.2, respectively.

Meanwhile, high-tech manufacturing continued to show improvements. The PMI for high-tech manufacturing stood at 51.5 in April, much higher than the overall manufacturing PMI.

Expectations remained optimistic, as the production and business expectations sub-index stood at 52.1 this month, remaining within the expansion territory.

The non-manufacturing PMI fell to 50.4 from 50.8 in April from the previous month but stayed above the 50 mark, indicating that sectors other than manufacturing continued to expand, data from the NBS also showed.

Business activity in the service sector inched down to 50.1 from 50.3, while that in the construction sector fell to 51.9 from 53.4.

The composite PMI output index, which combines the production sub-index of the manufacturing PMI and the non-manufacturing PMI, fell to 50.2 this month from 51.4 in March.

The composite PMI output index has remained in expansion territory since January 2023, showing that the overall output of the Chinese economy continues to expand, and the long-term fundamentals have not changed, Zhao noted.

In the next stage, China should strive to stabilize employment, support enterprises, maintain market stability, and manage expectations to respond to the uncertainties arising from the drastic changes in the external environment with a commitment to high-quality development, Zhao added.

Editor: Futura Costaglione