China’s manufacturing and business-activity indices both finished in positive territory in June, confirming that the world’s third-largest economy is continuing to expand amid a more generally mixed picture elsewhere in Asia.

India’s manufacturers have also stepped up production, leading to a slight pick-up in employment in the sector last month and the first rise in factory-gate prices for eight months.

Japan and Australia, the region’s largest and fourth-biggest economies respectively, are showing tentative signs that the worst of the downturn may soon be behind them, according to surveys of their companies – but no hint of a robust bounce-back.

The various surveys measuring business activity in China, India, Japan, Australia and Hong Kong – all released yesterday – are being studied for signs that Asia could help lead the developed world out if its deep recession.