The Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) of China's manufacturing sector rose to 55.2 percent in November, up 0.5 percentage points from October, the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing (CFLP) said Wednesday.

The figure marked an increase for the fourth consecutive month and the 21st straight month that the index was above 50 percent, connoting economic expansion.

The November PMI statistics indicated a stronger economic momentum, said Zhang Liqun, a researcher at the State Council's Development Research Center.

The PMI includes a package of indices to measure performance of the country's manufacturing sector. A reading above 50 percent indicates economic expansion, while below 50 percent indicates contraction.

Seven of the 11 sub-indices, including production, input price, and stockpile indices, climbed in November compared with the previous month, the CFLP said.

The input price index rose the most, up by 3.6 percentage points from October, to 73.5 percent in November. The index had witnessed a strong increase since August this year, signaling increasing inflation pressure, it said.

The consumer price index (CPI), a major gauge of China's inflation, rose to a 25-month high of 4.4 percent in October. China's economic data for November, including the CPI, industrial production and fixed assets investment, are due for release on December 13.

Inflation, caused by rising prices of imported commodities, was likely to be a major challenge for China in 2011, said Yu Yongding, a renowned Chinese economist and former China's central bank adviser.

However, UBS Securities economist Wang Tao expected China's CPI increase to remain "controllable" in 2011, rising by between 4 to 4.5 percent compared with this year.

External demand was expected to remain weak next year, weighing on China's export growth, Wang said. She forecast China's annual economic growth to slow to 9 percent next year.