Profits of China's major industrial firms fell 14 percent year on year in the January-February period, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Wednesday.
Combined profits of industrial firms with annual revenue of more than 20 million yuan (about 2.98 million U.S. dollars) stood at 708.01 billion yuan in the first two months of 2019, the NBS data showed.
Zhu Hong, an NBS senior statistician, attributed the decline to lower profits at some major industries and disruptions caused by the Spring Festival holiday in February.
"After being adjusted for the Spring Festival factor, the profits of major industrial firms were basically flat or slightly down from the same period of last year," an NBS statement quoted Zhu as saying.
