China manufacturing contracted for the fourth straight month on April but economists said the decline was less severe compared to the previous months, which suggests that economic downturn in the country is starting to ease.

According to the HSBC purchasing managers' index (PMI) on Monday, China's manufacturing continued to register below the scale of 50 but ticked up to 48.1 from 48.0 in March. A reading above 50 indicates expansion in manufacturing.

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HSBC said it was the first time that the PMI rose since it started falling from October 2013's 50.9. Employment in the manufacturing industry also dropped for the sixth month in row, the report suggested.

Qu Hongbin, chief China economist at HSBC, said the latest PMI data suggested that the domestic demand contracted at a slower pace but still remained sluggish. 

Qu said the latest numbers showed that the manufacturing sector and China's overall economy continues to lose momentum. He also said that the Chinese government needs to take bolder actions to ensure that the country will be able to regain its economic growth momentum.

The figure released by HSBC, however, was lower from the PMI released by the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing last week. The federation released a report saying the country's PMI remained the same as last month at 50.4.

Economists said the discrepancy can be explained by looking at how the federation and HSBC obtained their data. The federation focuses on China's big state firms while HSBS focuses on small private enterprises. That means, small private enterprises are actually feeling the pressure of the weak economy, experts said.

In March, the manufacturing PMI rose 50.3 up from 50.2 in February based on the data jointly released by the federation and the National Bureau of Statistics.