China January official PMI seen lifting off 1-1/2-year low

China's factory growth likely inched up from a 1-1/2-year low in January, helped by a slight pick-up in momentum the previous month, but the bounce is not expected to last due to unsteady exports and slowing investment, a Reuters poll showed. The data, to be released on Feb. 1 alongside the official services PMI, will set the tone for what's likely to be seen in the world's second-largest economy this year: a contained slowdown that will show growth cooling further from a 24-year trough. A housing slump, erratic growth in exports and a state-led slowdown in investment to help restructure China's economy weighed on the nation last year, dragging annual economic expansion down to 7.4 percent - a level not seen since 1990. To reflect China's "new normal" of slower but better-quality growth, economists at state think-tanks with knowledge of policy discussions said the government is likely to lower its 2015 economic growth target to around 7 percent, from 7.5 percent in 2014.

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