(Nov 3): A gauge of China’s manufacturing rose last month as a global recovery helps the nation’s factories, underpinning an economy weighed by a property slump.

The Purchasing Managers’ Index from HSBC Holdings Plc and Markit Economics for October was at 50.4, unchanged from the preliminary figure and up from September’s final reading of 50.2. Numbers above 50 indicate expansion.

Demand from the U.S. is supporting manufacturing in China. Even still, the world’s second-largest economy is headed for the slowest full-year expansion since 1990, based on the median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg.

Average input costs and prices charged both declined at the fastest rates since March, the report showed, suggesting factory-gate deflation is deepening. Higher new-export business was attributed to stronger demand from customers across a number of key export markets, it said.