BEIJING, April 1 (Xinhua) -- China's manufacturing growth rose in March, for the first time after three months of declines, official data showed on Tuesday.

The purchasing managers' index (PMI) for the country's manufacturing sector rose to 50.3 percent last month, up from 50.2 percent in February, according to a statement jointly released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing.

The index shows China's manufacturing sector is stable, said Zhao Qinghe, a senior analyst with the NBS.

A reading below 50 indicates contraction, while above 50 signals expansion.

Zhao attributed the rise to the resumption of production and business after the Spring Festival holiday.

The manufacturing PMI in March usually would be 2.8 percentage points higher from February on average, and the 0.1-percentage-point growth in March this year showed the economy did not improve remarkably, said Liu Ligang, chief China economist at ANZ Banking Group.

"The moderate rise was mainly driven by new export orders. It could be partially driven by seasonality, but the very moderate rise in employment suggests that the seasonality was rather small and demand is still weak," said Lu Ting, chief China economist with Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

The two sub-indexes for foreign trade both rose in March. The sub-index for new export orders gained 1.9 percentage points to 50.1 percent, while the index for imports climbed 2.6 percentage points to 49.1 percent.

The sub-index for employment climbed 0.3 percentage points to 48.3 percent, but still below the 50-percent expansion-contraction watershed.

The sub-index for production stood at 52.7 percent in March, up 0.1 percentage points from February. The sub-index for new orders also gained 0.1 percentage points to 50.6 percent, the statement said.

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