Official China factory PMI hits record low in February

The National Bureau of Statistics's factory sector Purchasing Managers' Index dropped from a reading of 50.0 in January to 35.7 for February - signalling a record pace of decline.

That fell short of the median projection by the consensus for a print of 45.0.

It was also worse than the 38.8 low hit during the Great Financial Crisis and the 38.0 that analysts at Barclays Research had penciled-in.

Compounding matters, some economists said the true pace of decline in the sector might be understated because of how the PMI is calculated.

A sub-index tracking suppliers' deliveries rises - boosting the headline PMI - when those slow, but in this instance, the slowdown was due to a supply shock, not an excess in demand.

Both for the headline PMI index and all the subindices in the NBS survey, the 50.0 point level marks the threshhold between an expansion and a contraction, with readings above and below it showing successively faster rates of increases or decreases, respectively.

A separate NBS PMI for the country' services sector also recorded a record low in February, coming in at 29.6.

However, the NBS said that there might be a 'silver lining'.

As of 25 February, the rate of work resumption at medium and large-sized businesses stood at 78.9% and was expected to improve to 90.8% by the end of March.

The respective figures for medium and large manufacturing firms stood at 85.6% and 94.7%.