"Manufacturing enterprises are expanding production by increasing raw material purchases, which has lifted commodity prices," Zhao said.

However, the September PMI showed a contrary situation between small and bigger manufacturing firms. For the small-scale business, the PMI was 48.8, down from 49.2 in August, which showed a more serious contraction.

Nevertheless, the PMI for large companies increased to 52.1 from 51.8.

Zhang Liqun, an analyst with the Development Research Center of the State Council, said that "although the September PMI maintained expansion, the growth margin has narrowed considerably, indicating that the rising momentum for the overall economy is not strong enough".

Future economic growth will be stable without an obvious rebound, Zhang said.

"Entrepreneurs showed their cautious expectations of the future market," he added.