Chinese PMI Rises to 50.3 in July

Official Chinese manufacturing PMI climbed to 50.3 in July.

This beat expectations for a decline to 49.8, from 50.1 the previous month.

Official manufacturing PMI last fell below the contractionary level of 50 in September 2012.

The employment index in the official PMI report has been below 50 for 14 straight months.

Earlier this month, China announced that it was for now withholding industry specific data from the PMI report,on account that there isn't enough time to analyze the data.

This will come as a relief to markets as concerns mount over China's economic slowdown. In a few minutes we will get HSBC China PMI that will give us a broader picture of the health of China's manufacturing sector.

Here's a full table showing the break-down of the sub-indices:

CHINA SURPRISES: MANUFACTURING IS EXPANDING