Industrial firms show healthy profit growth

China's big industrial firms are expected to see stable profit growth in coming months, after a double-digit year-on-year increase in cumulative profit from January to May laid a solid foundation for the year.

The healthy profit growth rates reflected in the latest official data for the year stem mainly from producers' primary businesses, even as enterprises face rising costs and a slightly lower producer price index, a gauge measuring prices of good sat the factory gate, according to Gao Ming, an analyst with China Merchants Securities.

Industrial companies with annual sales of more than 20 million yuan ($2.94 million) posted 2.9 trillion yuan in profits in the first five months, up 22.7 percent cumulatively year-on-year, according to the National Statistics Bureau.