China's industrial profits fall in Jan-Feb

BEIJING - 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 ($2.98 million) 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.

Auto, petroleum processing, steel and chemical industries saw profits markedly pared by falling product prices, dragging the overall industrial profit growth down by 14.2 percentage points, according to Zhu.

In addition, compared with the same period of last year, the Spring Festival holiday had a longer impact on industrial production as it came earlier this year, the statistician noted.

In the first two months, State-owned industrial firms' profits dropped 24.2 percent year-on-year, while private firms' profits slipped 5.8 percent.

Companies in manufacturing and mining posted profit declines of 15.7 percent and 12.6 percent, respectively.

Among the 41 sub-sectors, 20 saw higher profits and 20 reported lower earnings.

Major industrial firms' operating revenue reached 14.8 trillion yuan in the January-February period, up 3.3 percent year-on-year, the NBS data showed.