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![Workers weld the circuit boards of solar traffic signal lamps at the plant of Victory Traffic Facilities Engineering Co., Ltd in Baoding, China [Getty Images]](http://thebricspost.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/china3.jpg)
Workers weld the circuit boards of solar traffic signal lamps at the plant of Victory Traffic Facilities Engineering Co., Ltd in Baoding, China [Getty Images]
The total profits of industrial companies with annual revenues of more than 20 million yuan ($3.28 million) reached 6.28 trillion yuan last year, China’s National Bureau of Statistics said in a statement.
Profits posted by Chinese industrial firms rose 6 percent in December to 942.5 billion yuan ($155.84 billion) from a year earlier.
As the first available hint on economic performance for the new year, the flash reading for the China manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) dropped to 49.6 in January, falling below the 50-threshold that demarcates expansion and contraction and marking the lowest point in six months, according to results of a preliminary HSBC survey released on January 23.
The PMI reading does not bode well for the world’s second-largest economy as doubts resurface of a Chinese hard landing.
China’s economy expanded 7.7 per cent in 2013, overshooting the official target of 7.5 per cent. The government has yet to announce its 2014 growth target, which analysts widely expect to be set at 7 percent or 7.5 per cent.
“We expect the economy to decelerate to 7.4 per cent in 2014 from 7.7 per cent in 2013… Our forecast is based on the assumption of a policy shift from stabilizing growth to structural reform,” said Zhu Haibin, J. P. Morgan China Chief Economist in an email note.
Source: Xinhua
