REUTERS/William Hong
Economists polled by Bloomberg are looking for a reading of 48.7, up modestly from 48.5 in February.
So far experts have attributed to slowdown to impact of the Lunar New Year holiday.
But after last month's release, Societe Generale's Wei Yao pointed out that a "0.8 point decline in January and February combined was still sharper than the average decline of 0.5 point during the same period historically." And the decline was broad-based.
China has set a GDP target of 7.5% this year but premier Li Keqiang has said the policymakers will tolerate a slower pace of growth.