China's manufacturing production continues to expand in January

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) - China's manufacturing production continued to expand in January, with firms signaling sustained increases in both output and new orders, data provider S&P Global announced on Thursday.

"While production growth was broadly stable, the upturn in overall new business did lose some momentum since December, despite a fresh rise in new export work," S&P said.

It added that nevertheless, firms were more buoyant when assessing the year-ahead outlook, and the rate of job shedding across the sector eased notably on the month.

The Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) of the Chinese manufacturing sector was unchanged at 50.8 in January.

"The health of the sector has now strengthened for three successive months, to mark the longest period of continuous improvement for two-and-a-half years," it said.

S&P added that Chinese manufacturing companies signaled an expansion of output for the third month running in January.