Factbox: China's progress in economic resumption

Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-31 19:30:53|Editor: huaxia

BEIJING, July 31 (Xinhua) -- China's success in controlling the COVID-19 epidemic means the economy is steadily reviving. The following facts and figures indicate how the country is forging ahead in resuming work and production:

-- The purchasing managers' index (PMI) for China's manufacturing sector rose to 51.1 in July from 50.9 in June, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Friday.

It is the fifth month in a row that the figure remained in expansion territory. A reading above 50 indicates expansion, while a reading below reflects contraction.

The PMI for China's non-manufacturing sector came in at 54.2 in July, down from 54.4 in June, the NBS said.

-- China's online retail sales reached 5.15 trillion yuan (about 737.82 billion U.S. dollars) in the first half of 2020, up 7.3 percent year on year, according to the Ministry of Commerce (MOC).

The growth rate of online retail sales increased for four consecutive months, with this June seeing year-on-year growth of 18.6 percent.

E-commerce has shown strong vitality and resilience, and has played an important role in fighting COVID-19, ensuring the supply of materials, assisting in the resumption of work, and promoting the replenishment of consumption, said MOC spokesperson Gao Feng.

-- China remains attractive to foreign companies, with an overwhelming majority of those questioned in a survey expressing a desire to continue to invest and operate in the country, a commerce official said Thursday.

In a recent survey conducted by the MOC, some 99.1 percent of respondents said their companies' operations in the world's second-largest economy would continue.

Foreign direct investment into the Chinese mainland, in actual use, fell by 1.3 percent year on year to 472.18 billion yuan in the first half of 2020, with the second quarter registering 8.4 percent year-on-year growth. Enditem

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