Johannes Neudecker | Picture Alliance | Getty ImagesChina's factory activity expanded for a third-straight month in January, a private-sector survey showed on Thursday, helped by the first expansion in new export orders in seven months. Thursday's print though, extended a divergence from official data that points to the patchy growth in the world's second-largest economy and underscores the need for policy support. China's National Bureau of Statistics released data Wednesday that showed the country's official manufacturing PMI coming in at 49.2 in January, a fourth consecutive monthly contraction — compared with 49 in December. The Caixin manufacturing PMI surveys around 650 private and state-owned manufacturers that tend to be more export-oriented and located in China's coastal regions, while the official PMI surveys 3,200 companies across China. Employment in China's manufacturing sector trended down in the official survey released Wednesday as in the Caixin survey.

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Persons: Johannes Neudecker, Wang Zhe, Wang Organizations: Getty, P Global, National Bureau of Statistics, Overseas, Caixin Insight Locations: China