China's National Bureau of Statistics just published its April manufacturing PMI report.
The headline number fell to 50.6 from 50.9 in March.
Economists were looking for a reading of 50.7.
Any reading above 50 signals expansion.
Here's a break down of the March and April reports:
| March 2013 | April 2013 | |
| PMI | 50.9 | 50.6 |
| Output | 52.7 | 52.6 |
| New orders | 52.3 | 51.7 |
| New export orders | 50.9 | 48.6 |
| Backlog of work | 47.1 | 43.6 |
| Inventories of finished goods | 50.2 | 47.7 |
| Purchases quantity | 51.9 | 51.0 |
| Imports | 48.9 | 48.7 |
| Input prices | 50.6 | 40.1 |
| Inventories of raw materials | 47.5 | 47.5 |
| Employment | 49.8 | 49.0 |
Supplier delivery times Business Activity Expectation | 51.1 65.5 | 50.8 59.3 |
Earlier this month, we got a preliminary reading of HSBC's unofficial PMI, which unexpectedly fell to 50.5 from 51.6 in March. The final reading of this index will come out tomorrow.
Please follow Money Game on Twitter and Facebook.