CHINA's purchasing managers' index (PMI) fell to 50.6 in April from 50.9 in March, indicating a slowdown in manufacturing activity reflected in the slump in export orders.
"The slight fall in the PMI reading for April shows that the economic recovery is still not on a solid foundation," said the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing, which publishes the PMI with the National Bureau of Statistics.
March index numbers were the best in 11 months and most expected they would rise in April.
But Chinese economic activity was weak in the first quarter, with an 7.7 per cent increase year on year, compared with 7.9 per cent jump in the fourth quarter.
The PMI's sub-index for new orders fell to 51.7 in April from 52.3 in March while the measure of new exports slid into contraction territory with a reading of 48.6 in April, compared with 50.9 in March.
"The most worrying aspect of this is not that growth is weak, but that growth is weak despite a torrent of new credit," said IHS Global Insight economist Alistair Thornton.
In the first quarter, Beijing's measure of overall credit in the economy known as "total social financing" increased 58 per cent from the same period a year earlier.