Workers weld at a workshop of an automobile manufacturing enterprise in Qingzhou city, China's Shandong province, Feb 28, 2021. (PHOTO / XINHUA)

BEIJING - The purchasing managers' index (PMI) for China's manufacturing sector came in at 51.1 in April, slightly down from 51.9 of March, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed Friday.

A reading above 50 indicates expansion, while a reading below reflects contraction.

The manufacturing sector maintained steady growth in April, NBS senior statistician Zhao Qinghe said.

The manufacturing PMI continued to expand on the basis of the apparent rebound in the previous month, weakening somewhat but still higher than the level of the same period in 2019 and 2020, Zhao noted.

The manufacturing PMI continued to expand on the basis of the apparent rebound in the previous month, weakening somewhat but still higher than the level of the same period in 2019 and 2020, NBS senior statistician Zhao Qinghe said

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The sub-index for production stood at 52.2, down 1.7 percentage points from a month earlier, while that for new orders shrank 1.6 points to 52, indicating slowdown in the expansion of production and demand in the manufacturing sector.

The inventory index of raw materials was 48.3 percent, down 0.1 percentage points from the previous month, below the critical point of 50, indicating the inventory of major raw materials in the manufacturing sector decreased compared with the previous month.

READ MORE: Manufacturing PMI edges up in March

Non-manufacturing PMI

China's non-financial outbound direct investment (ODI) went down 4.9 percent year on year in the first quarter (Q1) of the year, official data showed.

The ODI amounted to 160.81 billion yuan (about US$24.8 billion) in the period, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

China's non-financial ODI into countries along the Belt and Road sustained a steady growth. During the period, investment into these countries expanded 5.2 percent year on year, accounting for 17.8 percent of the total ODI. The share was up by 0.5 percentage points from the same period last year.

Outbound investment into manufacturing and information transmission grew rapidly. Information transmission sector, for instance, attracted 1.62 billion dollars of funds in the first three months, up 20.9 percent compared with the same period last year.