HSBC Chinese manufacturing PMI improves in October, but weakness remains.
The HSBC 'flash' purchasing managers' index (PMI) for Chinese manufacturing rose to 50.4 in October, but while overall growth picked up there were still some signs of weakness in the data.
The headline figure is an improvement from the 50.2 reading in September and surprised analysts who were expecting no change.
However, a recovery in the employment sub-index, from 47.5 to 48.6, was largely behind the rise.
In fact, both the output and new orders components declined in October, to 50.7 and 51.4 respectively.
"Overall, although the improvement in the PMI is reassuring, the drivers of growth continue to come from the external sector; domestic activity remains soft," said analysts Jian Chang and Rahul Bajoria from Barclays.
Similarly, economist Julian Evans-Pritchard from Capital Economics said that the weakness remains concentrated in domestic demand, and that "is still putting downward pressure on growth going into the fourth quarter".
"Nonetheless, we think that healthy employment and wage growth, along with concerns over mounting credit risks, mean that policymakers will avoid rolling out significant stimulus in response to the continued slowdown," he said.