China's services sector grew at its fastest pace in three months in February, data showed on Monday, a positive sign for the world's second-largest economy following a string of indicators suggesting a loss in momentum.
The official non-manufacturing purchasing managers' index, a survey of sentiment, rose to 55.0 from January's 53.4, comfortably above the 50 level that separates expansion and contraction.
"I'm not surprised it's up," said Ting Lu of Bank of America-Merrill Lynch in Hong Kong, noting that the Lunar New Year, a prime travel and holiday, fell in early February.
"They're supposed to adjust for the seasonality."
February has previously been a bad month for non-manufacturing PMI. In 2011, it dropped 12 points, only to rebound by 15 points in March. Large February slides followed by March gains have occurred four times since 2008.
The pick-up in the services PMI contrasted with Saturday's drop in the official manufacturing PMI to an eight-month low of 50.2 in February.
China's services industry contributed 45 percent of gross domestic output in 2012, and it overtook manufacturing as the country's biggest employer in 2011. It has weathered the global slowdown much better than the factory sector.
A separate PMI survey of the services industry by Markit Economics and HSBC will be released on Wednesday. That survey covers more smaller, private firms than the official PMI.
Source: Reuters
