China's major industrial firms saw stronger profit growth, rose 23.3-per cent from one year earlier, in the first 10 months of this year, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Monday.
Industrial companies with annual revenue of more than 20 million yuan (about 3.03 million US dollars) reported profits of 6.25 trillion yuan in the first 10 months, the NBS said in a statement.
The growth marks a strong pick up from 22.8 per cent in the first three quarters, according to Xinhua report.
In October alone, profits of major industrial firms of the second largest economic country of the world rose 25.1 per cent year on year, slowing down from 27.7 per cent in September.
Among the 41 industries surveyed, 38 posted year-on-year profit growth during the first 10 months.
High-tech manufacturing and strategic emerging industrial enterprises reported faster growth during the ten-month period. The high-end equipment manufacturing and new material sectors saw profits up 29.3 per cent and 29 per cent, respectively, said the NBS.
Meanwhile, industries like coal, steel, chemicals and petroleum also recorded strong performance.
In the Jan.-Oct. period, combined new profit in the sectors of coal mining and washing, ferrous metal smelting and rolling, chemical raw materials and chemical products manufacturing, as well as oil and natural gas exploitation accounted for 51.2 per cent of the total profit increase.
In the first 10 months, costs per 100 yuan of revenue dropped 0.26 yuan from the same period last year, while expenses per 100 yuan of revenue went down 0.25 yuan, NBS statistician He Ping said.
He mentioned that the leverage ratio at Chinese industrial enterprises, a measure of financial risks, also went down amid the government's ongoing deleveraging efforts.
By the end of October, their debt-asset ratio dropped 0.5 percentage points from a year ago to 55.7 per cent.