BEIJING, Nov. 30 (Xinhua) -- The purchasing managers' index (PMI) for China's manufacturing sector came in at 52.1 in November, up from 51.4 in October, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Monday.

A reading above 50 indicates expansion, while a reading below reflects contraction.

The November PMI, the highest seen this year, marked the ninth consecutive month of expansion, data from the NBS showed.

The growth of the PMI in November, together with improvements in all sub-indexes, indicated greater vitality in the country's manufacturing sector and a faster pace of recovery, said NBS senior statistician Zhao Qinghe.

The sub-index for production stood at 54.7 in November, up 0.8 points from October, while that for new orders gained 1.1 points to 53.9, signaling that the recovery of market demand has picked up pace.

The new export order and import sub-indexes climbed to 51.5 and 50.9 in November, up 0.5 points and 0.1 points respectively from the previous month.

Both new export order and import sub-indexes hit a year-high in November and stayed in the expansion territory for three consecutive months, according to Zhao.

Monday's data also showed that the PMI for country's non-manufacturing sector came in at 56.4 in November, up from 56.2 in October.