China’s industrial profit decline narrows in November
December 27, 2015, 5:42 am

Industrial profits in the first 11 months of this year dropped 1.9 percent year on year to around 5.5 trillion yuan, the NBS said [Xinhua]

Profits at industrial companies with annual revenues of more than 20 million yuan (about $3.1 million) totaled 672.1 billion yuan in November.

Rebounding sales, lower costs and higher investment returns helped slow the profit decrease, said He Ping, an official with the Department of Industry at the NBS.

The world’s second-largest economy is struggling with excess capacity, sluggish investment and weaker manufacturing.

Revenues from the firms’ primary business rose 1 per cent year on year in November, compared with a 1.4 per cent drop in October.

Automobile and electricity industries posted marked profit growth, a major contributor to improvement in the overall industrial profits, He said.

Auto manufacturers saw their profits jump 35 per cent in November, 28.6 percentage points higher than in October. Profits of power and heat suppliers soared 51 per cent, up 42.6 percentage points from October.

However, the country’s industrial firms still have to cope with rapid piling up of finished products and fast increase of receivables, the money they have yet to collect from customers, He said.

Industrial profits in the first 11 months of this year dropped 1.9 per cent year on year to around 5.5 trillion yuan, the NBS said. The decline narrowed from a 2-per cent decrease registered in the Jan.-Oct. period.

In the first 11 months, state-owned industrial firms saw profits slump 23 percent year on year, while privately-owned firms rose 5.3 per cent.

Facing lingering downward risks, Chinese authorities have ramped up efforts to prop up the economy. The central bank has cut benchmark interest rates five times since last November and lowered banks’ reserve requirement ratio three times since February.

Source: Agencies