Customers eat inside a giant concrete pipe built on two layers on top of a barbecue restaurant in Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality on February 7, 2023. Photo: IC

China's services activity significantly rebounded in March, as shown by the private Caixin services purchasing managers' index (PMI), which stood at a 28-month high of 57.8.

The benchmark was 2.8 points higher than in February, meaning that the sector was in expansion territory for the entire first quarter.

The trend is in line with the performance of National Bureau of Statistics, which said earlier that the official PMI for China's manufacturing sector stood at 51.9 in March, down from 52.6 in February but still marking the second-highest level in almost two years.

The resumption of cross-border tourism helped boost the services sector recovery. Surveyed services enterprises said that sales had bounced back thanks to China's readjustment of its COVID-19 response measures at the end of 2022.

The sub-indexes for services and new orders have kept rising, and both stood at the highest levels since December 2020, according to the Caixin PMI.

The lifting of international travel restrictions helped boost exports, with a measure of new export orders hitting its highest level on record. 

In the first quarter, revenues of China's accommodation and catering sector increased by 22.8 percent, 22.7 percentage points more than the level in 2022 and also above the level in 2019, Wang Jun, head of the State Taxation Administration, said on Thursday during a press conference.

"Revenues of the entertainment sector and civil service sector were up 13.7 percent and 9.4 percent year-on-year, respectively," said Wang, and demand kept expanding in the period. 

The logistics sector was also strong. The  State Post Bureau said on Thursday that deliveries in the first 96 days of 2023 had surpassed 30 billion packages, 18 days earlier than the record set in 2022 and 99 days earlier than the same date in 2019.

Wang Zhe, a senior economist at Caixin Insight Group, said in a statement accompanying the data release that China's economic revival should continue to depend on boosting domestic demand. He stressed the importance of shoring up employment, workers' incomes and broad market expectations through ramping up household consumption. 

Chinese Premier Li Qiang stated in a keynote speech delivered at the opening ceremony of the Boao Forum on March 30 that the Chinese economy has showed an encouraging momentum of rebound in the first two months of 2023. 

Li Chang'an, a professor at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing, told the Global Times on Thursday that the rebound in services and household consumption will boost economic growth in 2023, and it will also coordinate with the nation's core development plan of expanding domestic consumption.