Beijing: China`s services sector expanded in March even as growth in employment and new businesses fell to the slowest pace in at least eight months, a private survey showed on Friday, another sign that the weak Chinese economy may need more policy aid.
The HSBC/Markit China Services Purchasing Managers` Index (PMI) inched higher to 52.3 in March, from February`s 52.0, and remained comfortably above the 50-point level that separates growth from a contraction in activity on a monthly basis.
But the marginal expansion was offset by lacklustre growth in employment, which fell to a 10-month trough of 51.1. Growth in new businesses also clung to a eight-month low.
The data resonates with three other PMIs released earlier this week that showed stubborn weakness in China`s factory and services sectors last month, adding to bets that Beijing would have to increase policy support to avoid a sharper downturn.
Slugged by a cooling property sector - where prices fell at a record pace last month - and a slowdown in exports and investment, China`s economic growth is expected to slip to around 7 percent this year, the worst in a quarter of a century.
