Executive salaries outpace profits

SHANGHAI: Although most Chinese publicly traded firms posted gloomy 2008 annual earnings reports, the average management salaries at some of these companies still saw distinct climbs.

According to financial data provider Wind, among 80 listed companies that had released their full-year earnings reports as of Feb 24, the annual management incomes of these firms rose 43.8 percent year-on-year to 2.93 million yuan on average in 2008.

The average net profit of the same companies only increased 18.48 percent to 142 million yuan in the same period. And 1,009 companies that had their annual or preliminary financial reports released by Feb 25 posted an average decline in profits of 43.61 percent to 173.6 billion yuan for 2008.