China services sector activity grows as expected in March- Caixin PMI

Investing.com-- China service sector activity grew as expected in March, a private survey showed on Wednesday, as persistent measures from Beijing to shore up liquidity and improve local demand helped spur new business.

The Caixin services purchasing managers index (PMI) grew 52.7 in March, as expected. The index picked up slightly from the 52.5 reading seen in the prior month. 

Local and export demand improved during the month, helping spur increased new business activity. Wednesday’s reading was the 15th straight month of growth in the Caixin PMI, although analysts noted that overall growth still remained below the long-run series average. 

Employment in the sector remained weak, while cost price inflation also failed to pick up substantially, Caixin analysts said in a note. 

Wednesday’s data comes after positive PMI data from the government and from Caixin over the past few days, which showed China’s manufacturing sector picked up in March after a surprise contraction in the first two months of the year.

The readings could signal some green shoots in a Chinese economic recovery, especially as the country rolled out a string of monetary stimulus measures in the past year to help improve growth.

But despite the recent improvements in PMI data, the Chinese economy still has a long and difficult road ahead to reach pre-COVID highs.