The scale of the deceleration, from 54.1 to 50.4, is the sharpest single-month drop highlighted in the release and pushes the headline reading to its lowest since September 2024, a signal likely to reinforce concerns about the durability of China's domestic demand recovery. The composite output index falling to a one-year low of 50.8 suggests the slowdown is not confined to services, with manufacturing also losing momentum, which could weigh on sentiment toward China-exposed assets more broadly. International demand told a different story, with services exports growing for a third consecutive month at a relatively strong pace. Higher staffing levels were attributed to business expansions, increased project workloads and the launch of new services. Backlogs of work rose for a ninth consecutive month, the longest such streak since 2023, though the pace of backlog growth slowed as hiring kept better pace with incoming work.