China's Manufacturing Accelerates as Economy Revives

BEIJING (AP) -- China's factory activity accelerated in February as the economy revived following the end of anti-virus controls that kept millions of people at home and disrupted travel and trade, two surveys showed Wednesday.

Purchasing managers' indexes issued by a business magazine, Caixin, and the official China Federation of Logistics & Purchasing rebounded to levels that show activity growing. Measures of production, exports and new orders all rose.

Business activity is recovering after the ruling Communist Party ended stringent anti-virus restrictions in early December. That followed a slump in activity that dragged last year's economic growth to 3%, its second-lowest level since at least the 1970s.

"Operations and customer demand revived," Caixin said in a statement.

The Caixin PMI rose to 51.6 from January's 49.2 on a 100-point scale. Numbers above 50 show activity growing. Caixin said it was the first improvement in seven months and the second-highest reading in 21 months.

The Federation's PMI, issued with the national statistics agency, rose to 52.6 from the previous month's breakeven level of 50.1.