Employees of China Railway Engineering Equipment Group work at the assembly shop for shield tunneling machine in Zhengzhou, Central China's Henan province, on March 18. [Photo/Xinhua]

China's manufacturing purchasing managers' index stood at 52 in March — up 16.3 percentage points from the previous month — showing significant positive changes in production and business operations month-over-month.

The non-manufacturing business activity index was 52.3, increasing 22.7 percentage points according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Tuesday.

China made progress in March in its integrated efforts to contain the novel coronavirus outbreak while promoting economic and social development.

Enterprises noticeably accelerated resumption of work and production. As of Wednesday, 96.6 percent of large and medium-sized enterprises surveyed by purchasing managers in China had resumed work.

"The month-over-month PMI rebound reflected the improvement of production and business operations from the prior month, as the majority of enterprises steadily push ahead with the resumption of work and production, but it does not mean the status of production has returned to the level before the epidemic," the head of service survey center at the National Bureau of Statistics said in a statement posted on the bureau's website on Tuesday.

"We cannot draw a conclusion that China's economy has returned to normal simply because the PMI and relevant data went above the 50 level that divides expansion and contraction for a single month. We still need to continuously observe changes in the economy to find out whether it has a trend of getting better," the official said.

Source: Xinhua