By Gina Lee

Investing.com – rose in December, a surprise move as the country attempts to curb its latest COVID-19 outbreaks.

Data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released earlier in the day showed that the increased to 50.3 in December, up from the previous month’s reading of 50.1. Investing.com had predicted a 50-year figure.

Meanwhile, the rose to 52.7 from November’s 52.3.

Economic recovery in the world’s second-largest economy has lost steam since early summer 2021, after an initial recovery in 2020. This slowdown is due to slower manufacturing growth and an over-debted real estate sector as well as the return of COVID-19 infections.

Bruce Pang, China Renaissance Securities Head for Macro and Strategy Research, stated that he expects more liquidity and targeted stimuli packages to be rolled-out to help SMEs, high tech and innovation companies and advanced manufacturing and green industry firms to ease the company’s burden, increase growth, mitigate risks, and offset the slowdown.

The industrial and tech city of Xi’an has entered lockdown since 23 December of 2021, as the local outbreak spreads. It has had an impact on factory activity. Two of the world’s largest memory-chip manufacturers Samsung Electronics (OTC:) and Micron Technology (NASDAQ:) have warned that the lockdown in Xi’an could affect their chip making in the area.

Zhejiang province managed to control an outbreak of COVID-19, although some businesses were forced from production. The western city of Xi’an remains under lockdown to curb its outbreak.

Investors await now the and, which is due next week.