(Yicai Global) Jan. 31 -- China's composite purchasing managers index (PMI), which combines the manufacturing and non-manufacturing sectors to indicate the overall conditions of the economy, was 54.6 this month, unchanged from last month, indicating that the overall production and business activities of Chinese companies continue steady, rapid development. The country's manufacturing PMI stood at 51.3, above 50 for 18 straight months, data that the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released on Wednesday show.

The country's manufacturing PM was 51.3% in January, down 0.3 percentage points from December, but still unchanged from the same period last year, indicating the manufacturing industry continuing to maintain steady expansion. China's non-manufacturing PMI was 55.3, up from 55.0 for last month, showing non-the manufacturing sector continued a sound development trend of steady growth, the data show.

The main feature of this month's manufacturing sector is that some industries entered production off-season and both demand and supply ends remained stable at a slower pace. Production and new orders slipped from the previous month, but both were in the relatively high expansion range of 53.0. The growth of consumer goods manufacturing has accelerated, however, now that the Chinese Lunar New Year holiday looms. The consumer product manufacturing PMI was 52.7 percent, up from 52.4 for December. Purchase prices of major raw materials and ex-factory price increases have fallen again, and the pressure of rising enterprise operating costs have eased, said Zhao Qinghe, a senior statistician at NBS.

Also, due to the early release of Christmas and New Year's foreign market demand and other factors, exports declined a bit this month, with the new export orders index sitting at 49.5, down 2.4 percentage points last month.

With Spring Festival looming, some 17.2 percent of enterprises reported labor shortages in the manufacturing sector, up 2.4 percentage points from December, the survey results show. In addition, some 17.4% of exporters think fluctuations in the yuan exchange rate adversely affected their production and business activities, up 2.7 percentage points from last month, Zhao said. A PMI reading above 50 denotes expansion, while one below shows contraction.