China Manufacturing Recovers on Stimulus: Will It Last?

China’s recent stimulus measures have paid off and are boosting the world’s second-largest economy, now likely to reach this year’s GDP growth goal of about 7.5 percent. That’s the consensus after Thursday’s release of figures showing manufacturing at its strongest level in 18 months.

The July HSBC/Markit flash PMI (Purchasing Managers’ Index) came in at 52.0, up from 50.7 in June and above the 51.0 that analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News had predicted. (Any reading above 50 signals an expansion.) “Economic activity continues to improve in July, suggesting that the cumulative impact of mini-stimulus measures introduced earlier is still filtering through,” Qu Hongbin, chief economist for China at HSBC, said in a statement released today.