(Yicai Global) Jan. 2 -- China's manufacturing purchasing managers' index was 49.4 percent last month, down 0.6 percentage points from November and below the critical point after falling for four straight months.

That figure averaged 50.9 percent last year, however, indicating that manufacturing maintained overall growth in the year. A PMI reading over 50 denotes expansion, one below contraction.

The PMIs of an array of companies all dipped last month. Large concerns logged 50.1 percent, down 0.5 percentage points from the previous month, a tad above the pivotal point. That of small and mid-sized companies was 48.4 percent and 48.6 percent, down 0.7 and 0.6 percentage points respectively, per data China's National Bureau of Statistics issued on Dec. 30.

Among the five sub-indexes that constitute manufacturing PMI, the production index and supplier delivery time index were above the red line, while the new order, raw material inventory and employee indexes all came in below.

Downdrafts on market demand have pushed some sectors to gradually shift to off-peak production and tamped down corporate expectations. The new order index and expected index of production and operation both hit an annual low last month. 

Imports and exports have declined recently, spooked by variables in the external environment, slowdown of domestic demand and other factors, and the price index has also continued to fall under the weight of wildly- fluctuating international commodity prices and other factors.

Production keeps growing, however, and company cost pressures have eased, though manufacturing PMI has fallen, said Zhao Qinghe, senior statistician at NBS' Service Industry Research Center.

Reasons for the continuing weakening streak were the persisting effects of financing problems and changes in the external milieu, Liu Zhe, deputy dean of the Wanbo New Economic Research Institute, told Yicai Global.

More urgent and faster tax and fee cuts will be called for in future, he said, adding many new means of fulfilling new consumer demands must be developed to avert shockwaves from demand spillover effect and form a resilient and powerful domestic market.

Editor: Ben Armour