The official purchasing managers' index for manufacturing, published on the last day of each month by the National Bureau of Statistics from a survey of about 3,200 firms. Above 50 is expansion, below 50 contraction.

Threshold source: Diffusion index convention: below 50 more purchasing managers report contraction than expansion. How thresholds are chosen

Skewed towards large state-owned firms; the private Caixin survey often disagrees. Read from the text of the monthly web release.