China's official purchasing managers' index (PMI) rose to a 13-month high of 53.3 in April from 53.1 in March, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Tuesday.
The reading indicated a further expansion in the vast factory sector, although it was slightly weaker than market expectations of 53.6. The PMI readings above 50 signal factory expansion while those below 50 point to contraction.
The manufacturing output sub-index rose to 57.2 from 55.2 in March, the data showed.
The HSBC Flash PMI, the earliest indicator of China's industrial activity, showed a stabilizing economy last week. That index's reading of 49.1 for April came in below 50 for the sixth month in a row, reflecting a contraction in the factory sector, but the rate of deterioration slowed in a sign the economy may have bottomed out in the first quarter.
"Economic activity has started to recover but at a relatively slow pace," Capital Economics' analyst Qinwei Wang said in a note before the official data, citing an index of data that firm tracks.
The new orders sub-index slipped to 54.5 in April from 55.1 in March, while the sub-index for new export orders rose to 52.2 from 51.9 in March.
Tight credit, especially for real estate developers and private firms, had helped push the Chinese economy to its weakest footing since the fall of 2008. But there are signs that the availability of loans is improving.
New loans in April may have reached 900 billion yuan, the Caijing Magazine said this weekend, citing a recent report by China International Capital Corp, or CICC. More attractive interest rates led to an acceleration in new mortgages, it added.
