CHINA'S service activity moderated last month, adding further evidence of a faltering recovery in the world's second-largest economy.
The official Services Business Activity Index, a comprehensive gauge of the vitality of China's service industry weighted toward state-owned enterprises, lost 0.4 points from a month earlier to 53.9 in June, the National Bureau of Statistics, together with the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing, said this morning.
A reading above 50 means expansion.
The component indices showed that new orders increased 0.2 points to 50.3, but prices lost 0.1 point to 50.6 and business expectations retreated 1.1 points to 61.8.
Meanwhile, the HSBC China Services Business Activity Index, which is slanted toward private and export-oriented service companies, posted 51.3 in June, up just fractionally from 51.2 in May.
Growth in new business eased for a third month and was the lowest in the survey's five-year history, though it still indicated expansion, according to a statement from the HSBC survey.
The rate of job creation accelerated at a modest pace, with around 8 percent of respondents saying they had hired additional staff over the month.
Qu Hongbin, chief economist for China at HSBC, said the underlying growth momentum is likely to be softening for the service sector.
"With sluggish growth of new orders, employment growth will be under pressure. Since China's value-added tax reforms may take time to filter through, we expect slower growth in the service sector in the coming months."