By Ellen Zhang and Ryan Woo

BEIJING (Reuters) -China’s factory activity in September expanded at the quickest pace since March, as rising new orders drove faster production growth, a private-sector survey showed on Tuesday.

The RatingDog China General Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI), compiled by S&P Global, rose to 51.2 in September from 50.5 in August, beating analysts’ expectations of 50.2 in a Reuters poll. The 50-mark separates growth from contraction.

The reading was better than that of an official survey released earlier on Tuesday, which showed factory activity extending declines for a sixth straight month.

“Overall, September’s PMI improvement was more broad-based,” said Yao Yu, founder of RatingDog.

Better underlying demand conditions, business promotional effor

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