Profit growth slows in major industries

Supply-side structural reforms working, official says; debt levels down slightly

China's major industries registered slower profit growth in July, but a senior official at the National Bureau of Statistics said on Sunday that overall data show the country's supply-side structural reform has continued to make progress.

Profits of the country's major industrial companies last month rose by 16.5 percent from a year earlier, the bureau said on Sunday. The figure was 2.6 percentage points lower than in June, but still significantly on the plus side.