China's industrial profits rebound in May, but lag in first five months

Profits of China's major industrial firms dropped by 19.3 percent from the year before  in the first five months due to the new coronavirus impact on the economy and thousands of human lives, official data showed Sunday, Xinhua reports

Profits of industrial companies with annual revenue of more than 20 million yuan were 1.84 trillion yuan during the January to May, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The contraction narrowed from the 27.4-percent decline in the first four months, NBS data showed.

Profits in 10 of the 41 industrial sectors surveyed logged year-on-year increases, while 30 sectors saw their profits fall, according to the NBS.

In breakdown, profits of the mining and manufacturing industries plunged by 43.6 percent and 16.6 percent year-on-year, respectively, while that of the production and supply of electricity, thermal power, gas and water reported a year-on-year drop of 16.7 percent.

In May alone, industrial profits grew by 6 percent from same period last year, compared with a 4.3-percent drop in April.

Efficiency of major industrial firms continued to improve in May as the restoration of work and production progresses, NBS statistician Zhu Hong said.

Zhu attributed the rebound in industrial profits last month to factors including lowers cost pressures, price changes of industrial products and the profit improvement in key industries such as petroleum processing, electricity and steel.

In 2019, China's industrial profits fell by 3.3 percent on an annual basis to 6.19 trillion yuan. Profits in key industries like steel, petrochemicals and automobiles fell markedly, with profit dropped by 37.6 percent, 25.6 percent and 15.9 percent respectively.