NBS: China's manufacturing PMI slips into contraction territory in July

China's Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) for the manufacturing sector declined to the contraction zone in July to sit at 49.2, down by 1.1 points on month, according to the latest data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Friday morning.

The decline was mainly due to the high base set by the rapid growth in the manufacturing sector earlier, as well as the traditional production off-season for some manufacturing industries, according to Huo Lihui, chief statistician at the NBS Service Industry Survey Center. Both production and demand retreated in the