According to data from the National Statistics Center and the China Institute of Logistics and Purchasing, this increase reflects a continued recovery in activity levels in the manufacturing sector.

The production index reached 52.6 percent, up 0.1 percentage points, while the new orders index rose 0.7 percentage points to 51.8 percent.

By company size, the PMI for large companies came in at 51.2 percent and although down 1.3 points from February, it remained above the growth threshold.

In contrast, medium-sized and small companies showed significant improvements, with their indexes rising to 49.9 percent and 49.6 percent, respectively.

All three key industries also posted gains in their PMI levels with indexes for the equipment manufacturing, high-tech and consumer goods sectors above 50 percent, evidencing a second consecutive month of improvement.

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