China Manufacturing PMI

China’s Manufacturing PMI is a survey-based diffusion index of factory-sector conditions. It is not industrial production itself: purchasing managers report whether output, new orders, export orders, employment, inventories, supplier deliveries and prices improved or deteriorated. The 50 threshold generally separates expansion from contraction, while the pace of change and sub-indices show the breadth of the move. Manufacturing is sensitive to domestic demand, global trade, supply chains, commodity costs and exchange-rate conditions. Read the headline with new orders, export orders, employment and prices, and compare it with the non-manufacturing and composite PMIs as well as hard output data. A surprise can influence views on China’s growth cycle and global risk appetite, but it is a survey signal, not a direct policy announcement or guaranteed CNY move.