NBS: China's Oct manufacturing PMI contracts to 49.3

Sentiment among Chinese businesses weakened last month, with the country's manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) declining by 0.8 percentage point from the prior month to sit at 49.3, below the threshold of 50 which connotes contraction, according to latest data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on October 31.

The retreat was mainly due to the pull-forward of some demand ahead of the National Day week holiday over October 1-7 and the impact of a complex and volatile international economic environment, according to Huo Lihui, chief statistician at the NBS Service Industry Survey Center. The sub-indices of both production