Manufacturing details
NBS statistician Huo Lihui said supply and demand in factories showed limited improvement. The production index touched the break-even mark of 50, while new orders rose to 49.2. High-tech manufacturing remained a bright spot, registering 50.1 and marking 10 straight months in expansion. In contrast, equipment manufacturing and consumer-goods producers slipped below 50, and energy-intensive industries, though still contracting, rebounded to 48.4, up 1.1 percentage points.
Performance diverged by company size. The PMI for small enterprises climbed two points to 49.1, its highest reading in nearly six months, while medium-sized firms edged to 48.9. Large manufacturers weakened to 49.3. Market confidence improved modestly, with the index measuring expectations for future production and operations rising to 53.1. Segments such as non-ferrous metal smelting and aerospace-related equipment reported sentiment above 57.
Services lose holiday lift
The service sector bore the brunt of November’s slowdown. The service-sector activity index fell to 49.5, also 0.6 points lower than a month earlier. Huo attributed the decline partly to the waning effect of China’s Golden Week holiday, held from Oct. 1–8, which typically spurs travel and consumer spending before normalizing.
Despite the overall drop, several service industries remained in expansion. Railway transportation, telecommunications, broadcasting and satellite transmission, and financial services each posted readings above 55. Property-related activity continued to underperform: real estate and residential services stayed below 50.
Construction showed relative resilience. The sector’s activity index improved to 49.6, and near-term sentiment strengthened, with its expectations sub-index climbing to 57.9.
Demand, prices and jobs
The non-manufacturing new orders index slid to 45.7, indicating softer demand. Input prices in services rose to 50.4, while service-sector sales prices, though still in decline, narrowed the contraction.
On the labor front, manufacturing employment ticked up to 48.4 and non-manufacturing employment nudged higher to 45.3. Supplier delivery times for factories improved marginally, pushing that index to 50.1.
Survey scope and context
The monthly PMI canvasses roughly 3,200 manufacturers and 4,300 non-manufacturing firms nationwide, providing a seasonally adjusted gauge often viewed as an early signal for overall economic momentum.
China’s manufacturing PMI has remained in contraction since April, shortly after new U.S. tariffs were introduced. Industrial profits fell 5.5 percent year-on-year in October, the sharpest drop since June, erasing gains recorded during late summer. Over the first 10 months of 2025, earnings at large industrial firms rose 1.9 percent, slowing from the January-September pace.
Broader growth has also cooled. Gross domestic product expanded 4.8 percent in the third quarter, down from previous periods. October saw a spike in trade tensions when Washington threatened additional 100 percent tariffs before a late-month agreement in South Korea trimmed duties on fentanyl-linked products and paused Beijing’s rare-earth export controls. The deal also reopened Chinese purchases of American soybeans and other agricultural goods.
Nonetheless, domestic demand remains subdued. A prolonged property downturn and fragile labor market continue to weigh on consumer spending. Policymakers have emphasized a longer-term strategy focused on lifting household consumption and advancing technology self-reliance, while refraining from large-scale stimulus. The government has maintained its full-year growth target of around 5 percent.
International agencies have been monitoring the situation closely. The International Monetary Fund noted in a recent country report that structural reforms and targeted fiscal measures are likely to play a bigger role in sustaining China’s medium-term growth trajectory.
Crédito da imagem: AFP via Getty Images
