Staff members work at a Skyworth workshop in Guangzhou, South China's Guangdong province
China's purchasing managers' index (PMI) bounced back to 53 in March, bolstering the country's confidence to ramp up efforts to achieve this year's economic and social development goals, though some economists said that a GDP growth rate of 5% for the year is acceptable.
On Tuesday, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed that China's manufacturing PMI for March recovered to expansion territory at 52, after slumping to a record low of 35.7 in February as the COVID-19 epidemic rattled the country's businesses and production.
Although it's a month-on-month gauge, the index shows that Chinese enterprises' operations have improved along with calls to steadily resume economic activity across the country.
As of March 25, among the enterprises polled for the index, large and medium-scale companies reported a business resumption rate of 96.6 percent, up 17.7 percentage points from February.
The worsening global pandemic and increasing imported cases pose a major risk for China's economic growth because the situation limits exports and may exert shocks on domestic industrial chains. But economists are confident that China can achieve this year's development goals.