Figures from the National Statistics Authority showed today, 27 December, that the profits of major industrial companies in China fell by 3.6% per annum during the first 11 months of this year.
Industrial enterprises with annual business revenue of at least 20 million Yuan (about 2.88 million U.S. dollars) each reported a combined profit of 7.72 trillion Yuan during the period, according to the authority.
“In November, industrial production slowed down, and pressures on businesses increased due to factors such as the epidemic and weak demand re-emergence, but the profit structure continued to improve,” said Zhu Hong, a senior statistician at the authority.
Zhu said that if sharp declines are excluded in several companies, such as steel and oil processing companies and two leading vaccine companies that achieved remarkably high profits last year, the overall profit growth rate will be 6.6 per cent from January-November this year.
Twenty out of the 41 prominent industries experienced profit growth during the period, up from 19 businesses in the first ten months.
The oil and gas exploration sector witnessed a 1.13-fold jump in profits from the same period last year, while the electricity and thermal power generation and supply sector and the coal mining and washing sector recorded profit increases of 47.2% and 47%, respectively.
In the first 11 months, the combined revenues of industrial enterprises kept growing, up 6.7 per cent year on year to 123.96 trillion Yuan, according to NIC data.
