China Official Nonmanufacturing PMI 53.4 in August Vs 54.5 in July

China's official nonmanufacturing purchasing-managers' index, a measure of activity outside the nation's factory gates, fell for a second straight month to 53.4 in August from 54.5 in July, the National Bureau of Statistics said Thursday.

The result, though it remained in expansion, marked the slowest growth in the sector since May of last year, according to the official data.

The subindex for services dropped to 52.6 from 53.1 in July while the subindex for construction decreased to 58.0 from 62.5, the bureau said.

The new-orders subindex for the entire sector fell to 50.9 from 51.1.

The official manufacturing PMI, also released Thursday, rose to 51.7 in August from 51.4 in July.

The nonmanufacturing PMI covers services including retail, aviation and software as well as the real-estate and construction sectors.

The data are based on replies to monthly questionnaires sent to purchasing executives at 4,000 companies in 27 nonmanufacturing sectors.

The China Federation of Logistics & Purchasing issues the data together with the National Bureau of Statistics.

Write to Grace Zhu at grace.zhu@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 30, 2017 21:30 ET (01:30 GMT)