Chinese manufacturing grows at fastest rate in 18 months

China’s economy continues to show impressive strength after figures show that the manufacturing sector expanded in October at its fastest rate in 18 months.

The purchasing managers index (PMI) from the state-sanctioned China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing rose to a seasonally adjusted 55.2 in October, up from 54.3 the previous month,

Any figure above 50 in the survey indicates growth within the sector and October’s rise is the eighth consecutive month that the sector has grown.

Zhang Liqun, an economist at the State Council Development Research Center, said: “These figures show that China’s economic growth will accelerate in the future.”

Last month, official figures revealed that Chinese GDP growth surged to 8.9% in the July to September period, up from 7.9% in the April to June period.

The strong result was due to all sectors performing strongly and was the fastest GDP growth since quarter three last year.

Many analysts have described China’s recovery as “impressive”.

In order to boost the economy (which is the world‘s third largest), the Government embarked on a massive stimulus package of infrastructure projects to create jobs and the economy appears to be in a better position that many of its counterparts throughout the world.

Also last month, it was announced that annual car production in China has accelerated and topped the 10 million mark for the first time and is set to overtake the world’s leading economies.

Only the US and Japan (the world’s number one and two economies) have produced 10 million cars in a single year.

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