China's industrial profits drop 2.9% in first 10 months

BEIJING - Profits of China's major industrial firms dropped 2.9 percent year-on-year in the first 10 months of the year, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed Wednesday.

The decline widened from a 2.1-percent fall in the first nine months, said NBS senior statistician Zhu Hong.

Specifically, profits of State-owned industrial firms dipped 12.1 percent from one year earlier to 1.47 trillion yuan ($210 billion), while those in the private sector gained 5.3 percent year-on-year to 1.39 trillion yuan in the first 10 months.

During the period, profits of the mining industry added 2.4 percent to 472.13 billion yuan, while the manufacturing industry dropped 4.9 percent to 4.13 trillion yuan.

Profits in 30 of the 41 industrial sectors surveyed rose compared with one year earlier, according to the NBS.

In October alone, profits of major industrial firms fell 9.9 percent year-on-year.

The fall was mainly due to a widening decrease in producer prices for manufactured goods, and slower production and sales growth, Zhu said.