China's industrial profits up 14.7% in Jan-Sept

BEIJING - Profits of China's major industrial firms grew 14.7 percent year on year in the first nine months of 2018, down from the 16.2-percent expansion for the January-August period, official data showed Saturday.

Profit at 34 of the 41 sectors surveyed rose compared with one year earlier, unchanged from that for January-August, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

In September, combined profits at industrial firms with annual revenue of more than 20 million yuan ($2.88 million) rose 4.1 percent year on year to 545.5 billion yuan. The pace of growth slowed from 9.2 percent in August.

NBS official He Ping attributed the slowdown in September to a pullback in the growth of industrial production and product prices as well as a high comparative base from last year.

According to the NBS, the sectors of steel, construction materials, oil and chemicals, which contributed 72.4 percent to the overall industrial profit increase, posted strong profit growth in the first nine months.

During the January-September period, cost per 100 yuan of revenue dropped 0.29 yuan from the same period last year to 84.31 yuan.

The debt-asset ratios of major industrial firms dropped 0.4 percentage point from a year ago to 56.7 percent by the end of September.