The purchasing managers' index (PMI) for China's manufacturing sector came in at 49.5 in May, up 0.5 percentage points from April, indicating an improvement in the industry's prosperity level and a stabilization in economic operations, showed official data released on Saturday. PMI, a measure of economic activity based on survey data from firms regarding factors like production, new orders and inventories, is commonly viewed as a benchmark for the health of the manufacturing sector. The production index went up 0.9 percentage points to 50.7 percent in May, rising above the threshold, representing an acceleration in production activities of manufacturing enterprises, showed data released by the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing and the National Bureau of Statistics' Service Survey Center. Meanwhile, the sub-indice of new orders was 49.8 percent in May, up 0.6 percentage points from the previous month. The import and export indices also showed a rebound in May. The new export orders index stood at 47.5 percent, up 2.8 percentage points from April, while the import index grew by 3.7 percentage points to 47.1 percent. In terms of the market expectation, the expected index of production and business activities was 52.5 percent in May, 0.4 percentage points higher than the previous month. Shotlist: Beijing, China - May 31, 2025: FILE: Fujian Province, east China - Date Unknown 1. Aerial shot of freight vessel, facilities at port; 2. Aerial shot of trucks passing check point, containers at port; 3. Facilities in warehouse; FILE: Shandong Province, east China - March 2025 4. Various of production line of hi-tech products; FILE: Shouguang City, Shandong Province, east China - Date Unknown 5. Aerial shot of plant; 6. Various of workers processing food products; Beijing, China - May 31, 2025 7. SOUNDBITE (Chinese) Huo Lihui, head, business climate survey division, Service Survey Center, National Bureau of Statistics (starting with shot 6/ending with shots 8-9): "In terms of industries, the production index and new order index of sectors such as agricultural and sideline food processing, dedicated device, and devices for railway, shipbuilding and aerospace are all above 54 percent, which indicate that both supply and demand in these industries are growing rapidly."; FILE: Zhejiang Province, east China - Date Unknown 8. Aerial shot of freight vessel, facilities at port; 9. Aerial shots of crane moving containers; 10. Vehicles carrying containers; FILE: Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, northwest China - Date Unknown 11. Equipment in factory; FILE: Henan Province, central China - Date Unknown 12. Production line in operation; FILE: China - Date Unknown 13. Robotic arms in operation; FILE: Heilongjiang Province, northeast China - Date Unknown 14. Various of equipment being produced Beijing, China - May 31, 2025 15. SOUNDBITE (Chinese) Cai Jin, chairman, China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing (starting with shot 14/ending with shots 16-20): "The expected index has also rebounded, indicating that the overall market is increasingly optimistic about the future economic performance. The Chinese economy has maintained very stable operation and demonstrated further enhanced resilience."; FILE: Chongqing Municipality, southwest China - Date Unknown 16. Vehicle assembly line in operation; FILE: Shenzhen City, Guangdong Province, south China - Date Unknown 17. Robotic arms producing vehicle part; 18. Staff working on computer; 19. Robotic arm in operation; 20. Workers on production line; FILE: Zhejiang Province, east China - March 2025 21. Various of workers; machine working. [Restriction - No access Chinese mainland]