Profits of China's major industrial firms grew 14.7 per cent year on year in the first nine months of 2018, down from the 16.2-per cent expansion for the January-August period, official data showed Saturday.
Profit at 34 of the 41 sectors surveyed rose compared with one year earlier, unchanged from that for January-August, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
In September, combined profits at industrial firms with annual revenue of more than 20 million yuan (about 2.88 million US dollars) rose 4.1 per cent year on year to 545.5 billion yuan. The pace of growth slowed from 9.2 per cent in August, reports Xinhua.
NBS official He Ping attributed the slowdown in September to a pullback in the growth of industrial production and product prices as well as a high comparative base from last year.
According to the NBS, the sectors of steel, construction materials, oil and chemicals, which contributed 72.4 per cent to the overall industrial profit increase, posted strong profit growth in the first nine months.
During the January-September period, cost per 100 yuan of revenue dropped 0.29 yuan from the same period last year to 84.31 yuan.
The debt-asset ratios of major industrial firms dropped 0.4 percentage point from a year ago to 56.7 percent by the end of September.