Staff members sort packages at a logistic center of Daoxian branch of China Post in Daoxian County, central China's Hunan Province, Nov. 11, 2024. Manufacturers, e-commerce platforms and logistics companies across the country are busy coping with consumer's demand during China's annual "Double 11" shopping festival. (Photo:Xinhua)

Key economic indicators released on Tuesday painted a picture of growing vitality in China's logistics sector, corporate operations and services activity in July, which Chinese experts believed laid the foundation for resilient growth momentum in the second half of the year.

The China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing (CFLP) announced that the index tracking the country's logistics activity stood at 50.5, remaining in expansion territory.

The e-commerce express delivery index surged to 69.3, staying in a high prosperity range with ongoing vitality. Air transportation saw steady growth driven by seasonal shipments of fresh food and fruits, with the index rising 0.8 month-on-month to 52.8. Both the road and railway transport indices inched up from a month earlier.

Business activity in the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta continued to recover, while railway coal transportation increased amid summer energy demand peaks, according to the federation.

China's bulk commodity market also showed a month-on-month improvement in July. The China Bulk Merchandise Index, a gauge of domestic bulk commodity market growth, came in at 111.4 percent in July, up 0.5 percentage points from June, according to the data released by the CFLP. 

The data marked the third consecutive month of month-on-month growth, signaling a stable recovery in the commodity market and expanding corporate production, the federation said.

China's services sector expanded at a stronger pace at the start of the third quarter, according to a survey released by S&P Global on Tuesday.

The headline S&P Global China General Services Business Activity Index rose to 52.6 in July, from 50.6 in June. Posting above the 50.0 neutral mark, the latest data indicated another expansion of services activity in China, extending the current period of growth to just over two-and-a-half years. The rate of expansion was the fastest since May 2024, according to a news release.

Services activity rose at a quicker pace due to rising inflows of new business, supported by a fresh rise in foreign demand. Business sentiment also improved to the highest level since March. Higher workloads and rising confidence led services firms to hire additional staff in July.

"July's S&P Global China General Services PMI revealed that the services sector grew at an accelerated pace going into the second half of the year. It was positive to see business sentiment recovering further, with the overall level of confidence the highest since March amid hopes that both global economic and trade conditions will strengthen in the coming months," Jingyi Pan, economics associate director at S&P Global Market Intelligence, said in a note in the news release.

The data for July shows that China's economy remains on a stable growth path and is in an expansionary phase, with improving business activity and confidence laying a solid foundation for second-half growth, experts said.

The figures reflect that China's economy is on a positive expansion track, with domestic consumption and external demand working in synergy, market vitality remaining robust, and economic operations staying steady, Wang Peng, an associate research fellow at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Tuesday. 

Looking at the July data, the recovery in enterprises' production and operations drove the production of relevant businesses. Meanwhile, the improvement in external demand and the increase in new export business injected new impetus into enterprises' production and operations. These factors will play a supporting role in economic growth in the second half of the year, Wang said.

Li Changan, a professor at the Academy of China Open Economy Studies at the University of International Business and Economics, pointed out that both production-oriented enterprises and services-oriented enterprises are accelerating their recovery pace, which is reflected in the data. 

In particular, the PMI, as an important indicator, remained in the expansion zone, indicating that both demand and expectations have improved. This will provide strong support for sustained economic growth in the second half of the year and lay a solid foundation for achieving the annual economic growth target, Li told the Global Times on Tuesday.

Despite rising challenges and external uncertainties, China achieved steady economic growth in the first half of the year and is actively taking steps to maintain stability and sustain growth momentum in the months ahead.

China's GDP grew 5.3 percent year-on-year in the first half of 2025, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed. In the second quarter, GDP expanded 5.2 percent year-on-year.