China December manufacturing PMI up to 55.3

That is according to the GFLP. Before we drown in alphabet soup CFLP is the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing.

The PMI stand for the purchasing manager's index for the manufacturing sector. That fell to 55.3 points in December from 55.4 in November.

So what can we read into that?

A simple guide is that a reading above 50 indicates expansion in manufacturing activity while a reading below 50 represents a contraction. So those figures suggest there was a trending down during those months.

There were reasons for this but now the situation is starting to right itself back on to the boom bandwagon that China has been riding for several years. The new orders index increased to 59.6 in December from 59.4 in November. And, almost in lock step, the export orders index was 54.3 in December, up from 53.8 in November.


The input price index fell to 69 from 70.1 in the previous month, reflecting an downward trend in resource prices.

China first reported PMI data in June 2005. The indicators are jointly compiled by the National Bureau of Statistics - our illustration shows Xie Fuzhan, Commissioner of the National Bureau of Statistics of China - and the CFLP who employ much smarter people than this writer.