China's economy has started 2025 with renewed vigor, as key indicators spanning manufacturing, consumption and real estate reveal strengthening momentum, thereby signaling continued recovery and stability amid global uncertainties, experts noted.

PMI signals expansion 

The Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) for China's manufacturing sector rose to 50.2 in February, up 1.1 percentage points from January and back in expansion territory, latest data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed.

The non-manufacturing PMI also improved last month, edging up 0.2 percentage points to 50.4, while indices in sectors such as air transport, postal services, telecommunications, radio, television, satellite transmission services, monetary and financial services, and capital market services remained above 55 in February -- indicating robust growth in overall business volume, NBS statistician Zhao Qinghe said.

China's composite PMI stood at 51.1 in February, up 1 percentage point from the previous month, the NBS confirmed.

All three key PMI indicators stood in expansion territory in February, driven by post-Spring Festival production resumption and improved market confidence, reflecting that an overall recovery was gathering speed, Zhao noted.

Robust green consumption 

China's green transformation of consumption in key areas has continued in 2025. Looking at new energy vehicles (NEVs) as an example, the country's passenger car production volume reached 2.11 million units in January, up 3.6 percent year on year, while NEV output and sales soared by 25.8 percent and 10.5 percent from a year earlier to reach 940,000 units and 744,000 units, respectively.

Complementing this growth, China's newly-launched insurance platform for NEVs had already covered 114,000 units as of February 25, following guidelines to address challenges and bolster consumer trust in this rapidly expanding sector.

Notably, in the first two months of 2025, China's electric bicycle trade-in program generated healthy sales of approximately 1.019 million e-bikes, driving new sales of such bikes amounting to 2.66 billion yuan (about 370 million U.S. dollars), the Ministry of Commerce said on Monday.

Commenting on China's recent economic performance, Gabriel Crouse, a South African policy analyst at the Institute of Race Relations, said that compared with the fast economic growth from a relatively low baseline decades ago, China is now operating from a higher baseline and pursuing high-quality development.

"China is continuing to lead the world in new energy vehicles, artificial intelligence (AI) and other emerging sectors," said Crouse.

Traditional pillar sees stabilization 

The real estate sector, a traditional pillar of domestic demand, is showing signs of stabilization, said Ming Ming, chief economist at CITIC Securities -- highlighting policy tailwinds, including potential cuts to mortgage rates and relaxed purchasing restrictions in major cities, as keys to restoring market equilibrium.

Data from E-house China R&D Institute revealed that the average destocking period for new residential homes in 100 Chinese cities was 21.3 months in January, a remarkable drop from the previous peak of 26.8 months.

New residential home sales in Beijing surged by 47.11 percent year on year in February -- with 2,295 units recorded in online sales contracts. Meanwhile, second-hand home transactions, a key segment of the city's property market, saw a 92.3-percent increase during the same period, according to data from leading real estate website Fang.com.

As a series of market-stabilizing policies begin to take effect, the upward trend with positive signals across the industry will become increasingly clear, promoting the entire industrial chain in this sector in entering a positive recovery cycle, said Zhang Yan, an analyst from property research institution CRIC.

Chinese policymakers have since last year introduced a range of measures, including financial stimuli and regulatory adjustments, to bolster the property sector. These include mortgage rate cuts, lower down payment requirements, eased purchasing restrictions and financing coordination mechanisms to enhance funding support for developers.

"To see China recognize problems and address them properly reassures investors that the Chinese economy remains a safe place to bet on," said Crouse. 

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