The plant opening ceremony in Chongquing in February, 2012. (Photo: Ford)

HONG KONG — Chinese manufacturing grew a bit slower in December than the previous month, according to a survey released Monday, in a new sign of the shaky recovery in the worlds second-biggest economy.

The preliminary version of HSBCs purchasing managers index released Monday slipped to 50.5 from 50.8 in November.

The index uses a 100-point scale on which numbers below 50 indicate a contraction.

Chinas economic growth fell to a two-decade low of 7.5 per cent in the three months ending in June before rebounding by 7.8 per cent in the latest quarter.

While the survey found that growth slowed marginally from November, it still stands above the average reading for the third quarter, implying that the recovering trend of the manufacturing sector starting from July still holds up, HSBC economist Qu Hongbin said, adding that he expected Chinas economic growth to stabilize at about 7.8 per cent in the fourth quarter.

New orders grew at a faster rate compared with the month before though employment fell and production growth slowed, the survey said.

The survey is based on 85-90 per cent of responses from 420 manufacturing companies in mainland China. The full version of the survey will be released on Jan. 2.