The manufacturing sector in China continued to expand in January, albeit at a slower pace, the National Bureau of Statistics, cited by rttnews, with a Manufacturing PMI score of 51.3.

That missed expectations for 51.5 and was down from 51.6 in December.

It also remained above the boom-or-bust line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction.

The bureau also noted that the non-manufacturing PMI came in with a score of 55.3 - beating forecasts for 54.9 and up from 55.0 in the previous month.