(Yicai Global) April 30 -- China’s purchasing manager’s index for manufacturing dropped to 50.8 in April, implying continued but slowing expansion as the global spread of Covid-19 begun to take its toll on export orders.

The PMI was down 1.2 points from March, according to figures from the National Bureau of Statistics. The index for new export orders was just 33.5 and for new imports 43.9, down 12.9 points and 4.5 points from the month prior.

There is increased uncertainty in the import and export market, said Zhao Qinghe, a senior statistician at the NBS’s Service Industry Survey Center. Global economic activity has contracted sharply as Covid-19 has spread much more quickly overseas, and this has implications for China’s foreign trade. Some manufacturers reported steep declines in new export orders and a large number of cancellations, he added.

Zhang Liqun, a special analyst at the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing, focused on the positive: the figure was above 50 and therefore represented expansion. Production in China has gradually begun returning to normal now the virus has eased inside China, he said, adding that the PMI will remain stable for the time being.

The most urgent task at hand is to help small and medium-sized companies fully recover to take the economy into a stage of constant growth, Zhang said.

The non-manufacturing business activity index rose 0.9 point to 53.2 in April, according to the NBS. The construction index rose 4.6 points to 59.7 and the service index rose 0.3 point to 52.1. The composite index was 53.4, up 0.4 point.

Editor: James Boynton