Profits of China's major industrial enterprises improve in October

Backed up by sustained effects from the government’s incremental pro-growth policies, China's major industrial enterprises saw a stable growth in production in October. The drop of their monthly profit narrowed significantly by 17.1 percentage points from a month earlier, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on Wednesday.

Recovering business revenues supported corporate profits. Industrial firms’ profits above the country’s designated size saw a 10 percent year-on-year decline in October -- a sharp improvement as the decline narrowed by 17.1 percentage points from September.

Most industrial sectors saw profit improvements in October compared to September, driven by growth in equipment manufacturing and high-tech industrial sectors. Meanwhile, the profit decline in raw material sector and consumer goods manufacturing narrowed significantly, NBS statistician Yu Weining said in a statement.

Last month, over 60 percent of industrial sectors saw improved profits compared with the previous month, with the manufacturing sector showing the most noticeable improvement, Yu said.

In October, the profit decline in the manufacturing sector narrowed by 22.3 percentage points from September, contributing to a 17.8 percentage point reduction in overall profit decline.

In the equipment manufacturing sector, profit rose by 4.5 percent year-on-year, rebounding to positive territory in October, which also provided strong support for the overall improvement in industrial profits last month. 

Breaking it down by industry, in the eight sub-sectors of equipment manufacturing, seven saw either a shift from profit decline to growth, or a reduction in the rate of decline compared with September, Yu noted.

Profits in high-tech manufacturing rose by 12.9 percent year-on-year, which contributed a 1.9 percentage point increase in profits across the country’s large industrial enterprises.

From January to October, profits at major industrial enterprises nationwide totaled 5.868 trillion yuan ($809 billion), down 4.3 percent year-on-year, NBS data showed.