China's industrial profit growth quickens

Major Chinese industrial firms saw their profits rise 13.5 percent year on year in the first three quarters, a faster pace than the 12.8-percent growth rate in the Jan.-Aug. period, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Sunday.

From January to September, industrial companies with annual revenues of more than 20 million yuan (3.26 million U.S. dollars) realized a total profit of 4.05 trillion yuan, the NBS said in a statement.

In September alone, profits of the industrial companies surveyed grew 18.4 percent from a year ago to 558.89 billion yuan, down from a 24.2-percent growth seen in August but up from July's 11.6 percent, the NBS data showed.

He Ping, an analyst with the NBS, cited growing sales, rising manufacturer's price and falling unit cost as main reasons behind a steady growth in industrial profits.

Companies saw their revenues from main business rise 11.9 percent year on year in September, up 1.6 percentage points from the growth in August, while the manufacturer's price fell at a slower pace year-on-year and the unit cost declined, He explained citing latest NBS data.

However, He said growth in the companies' investment returns had slackened, slowing down the growth rate in September's total profits from the month earlier level.

Investment returns of those companies surveyed edged up 9.5 percent year on year in September, down 20.1 percentage points from August, the NBS analyst said.