Services sector offsets gloom in manufacturing

Healthy uptick gives policymakers confidence on full-year prospects

Services continued to show strong growth momentum and edged past manufacturing to account for the lion's share of the economy in China during the first six months of the year, according to the latest economic data released by the government on Wednesday.

The services sector accounted for 46.6 percent of the economic output in the first six months of the year, up 1.3 percentage points from the same period last year, and outweighed the manufacturing sector by 0.6 percentage point.