Services sector contracts

Latest official PMI shows potential downside risks for China's economy

Modest growth is likely to be maintained in China, helped by ongoing structural reforms, despite it still facing some strong headwinds, particularly eurozone recession and sluggish US demand, experts said on Friday.

They were reacting to the latest official economic figures, which showed that China's non-manufacturing sector contracted in April. The figures, released by the National Bureau of Statistics, showed the purchasing managers index for the non-manufacturing, or services, sector stood at 54.5 percent in April, down 1.1 percentage points from March.