BEIJING (Reuters) – Activity in China’s services sector grew in March at its fastest pace in two and a half years, driven in particular by new orders, job creation and a recovery in consumption after the COVID-19 pandemic, show the results of a private investigation released Thursday.
The services PMI index calculated by Caixin/S&P Global came in at 57.8 last month, after 55.0 in February, its third month of growth after the lifting of restrictions imposed to fight the pandemic.
Contraction and expansion of activity are separated by the 50 point threshold.
According to the Caixin survey, improving demand drove new orders, which reached their highest rate since November 2020.
In particular, new export orders in the service sector grew at the fastest rate on record.
Job creations hit their highest rate in 28 months as companies hired additional workers to meet demand.
The composite PMI index calculated by Caixin/S&P rose to 54.5 in March after 54.2 the previous month.
(Report Ellen Zhang and Ryan Woo; Camille Raynaud)
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