Chinese industrial sector’s profits increase 11.4%

According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the total profits of industrial companies with annual business revenue of more than 20 million yuan ($3.2 million) reached 2.86 trillion yuan, reported Xinhua.

The profits growth was markedly up from the less than 10-per cent increase recorded in the first five months. The faster-than-expected growth pace was due to strong growth in June, when industrial firms raked in 588 billion yuan in profits, up surprisingly by 17.9 per cent from a year ago.

He Ping, statistician at the NBS, attributed the increase to rising sales and dropping costs of industrial firms in June and admitted that the low base in the same period last year also contributed to the high growth. In the January-June period, profits of foreign-funded enterprises and companies with funds from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan rose the most by 15.3 per cent year-on-year to 691.76 billion yuan.

State-owned and state-holding industrial enterprises amounted to 761.35 billion yuan in profits, up 5.6 per cent from a year ago; profits of private firms climbed 13.5 per cent year-on-year to 910.49 billion yuan; joint-stock enterprises took in total profits of 1.69 trillion yuan, up 10.8 per cent year-on-year.

By sector, industrial enterprises in mining industry reached profits of 340.05 billion yuan in the first half, down 14.6 per cent year-on-year. Companies in manufacturing sector saw 15.6-per cent year-on-year growth to hit 2.3 trillion yuan in the period.

Out of the total 41 industrial sectors, profits of 35 sectors rose, one remained flat and five dropped in the first half from the same period last year.