According to an official economic barometer, China’s industry has recently contracted, fuelling doubts about a robust recovery in the sector. This is fuelling doubts about a thorough recovery in the sector. The Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for the manufacturing sector published by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) unexpectedly fell below the growth mark of 50 points in May down to 49.5 points. Last month, it had been just above this level at 50.4 points. Although the non-manufacturing sector remained in positive territory at 51.1 points, it was also lower than in April.