China's manufacturing sector continued to contract for the third straight month in September due to weaker global consumer demand, showing that even the world's second-largest economy is not immune to the financial crisis.

The HSBC purchasing managers' index, which previews business conditions in a range of industries before official monthly output data, was at 49.9 in September, unchanged from August.

The final reading for HSBC's China PMI is stronger than the flash PMI reading of 49.4 published last week.

"This implies that although the lagged effects of credit tightening will continue to cool industrial activity in the months ahead, there is little need to worry about a sharp slowdown," said Qu Hongbin, China economist at HSBC.

In PMI releases around the world, the 50-point level typically separates expansion from contraction in factory output.

HSBC believes a PMI reading as low as 48 in China still points to annual growth rate of 12 to 13 percent in industrial output and a 9 percent expansion in gross domestic product.

Qu expects China's economic growth to hold up at around 8.5 to 9 percent in the coming years, despite the global slowdown.

Weakening in China's manufacturing is due to declining demand from the United States and Europe, its two biggest export markets. An economic slowdown for China will also not bode well for exporters Canada, Australia and Brazil as China sources most of its raw materials from the three nations.

Factory inflation in China accelerated distinctly in September, with the sub-index for input prices jumping to a four-month high of 59.5 in September from 55.9 in August.

That could imply rising pressure on consumer inflation, which pulled back to 6.2 percent in the year to August from a three-year high of 6.5 percent in July.