The earnings of China’s top industrial companies continued to see rapid growth in the first eleven months of the current year, the latest sign that the country’s economy is poised to end the pandemic-stricken year on a strong note.
Industrial companies with annual business revenues of at least 20 million yuan (about $ 3.14 million) raised 7.98 trillion yuan in combined profit in the January-November period, a year-on-year increase of 38 percent. , revealed Monday the National Bureau of Statistics (BNE) in a statement.
The expansion put the January-November average growth for 2020 and 2021 at 18.9 percent.
In November alone, major industrial companies made 805.96 billion yuan in total profit, an increase of 9 percent year-on-year, according to the statement.
Industrial gains recorded for most of the year are positive, showing that the country’s economy has remained stable despite challenges both at home and abroad.
Breaking down the data, BNE senior statistician Zhu Hong highlighted the improvement in the business profit structure, saying that containing the growing momentum in the prices of some raw materials eased the pressure on final producers.
“The production of equipment and consumer goods contributed more to aggregate industrial profits … And a growing number of sectors reported increases in profits,” Zhu added.
Consumer goods production posted higher gains for the second month in a row in November, leading the food and apparel industry, the equipment manufacturing industry regained positive growth, and earnings rose slightly.
Due to high commodity prices, the mining sector continued to see earnings rise, albeit with a milder growth rate, but they remain the main drivers of broader industrial earnings growth.
Zhu also stressed that the operation of private companies and small businesses continued to improve thanks to a series of relief measures from tax exemptions to financial support by the government, adding that their earnings growth was stronger than the industrial average.
Monday’s figures also show that in the first 11 months, the combined revenue of those companies increased 20.3 percent from the previous year to 114.31 trillion yuan, while 33 of the 41 industrial sectors experienced a year-on-year expansion in earnings. At the end of November, the total assets of industrial companies amounted to 141.07 trillion yuan, an increase of 9.8 percent from the previous year.
Despite the improvement in operating conditions, Zhu still warned of challenges, including relatively high costs for companies, noting that more efforts are required to help industrial companies.
Precise and targeted support for manufacturing companies, particularly small, medium and micro-enterprises, should be stronger in an attempt to stimulate the vitality of market entities, Zhu added.
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