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Jan-July industrial profits jump 21%
By Su Bei (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-08-23 06:04
China's industrial companies generated total profits of 743.7 billion yuan (US$91.7 billion) in the first seven months of the year, the National Bureau of Statistics said yesterday in Beijing.
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| A bus made by Xiamen Golden Dragon Van Co. Ltd runs towards a cargo ship as its employees celebrate their first exports to Saudi Arabia, August 22, 2005. [newsphoto] |
The figure represents an increase of 20.6 per cent over the same period last year.
Profit growth was 1.5 per cent higher in the first six months, but 17.4 percentage points lower than last year as a whole.
Wang Zhao, a senior researcher with the State Council Development Research Centre, said the current profit situation was in line with economic development.
The economy is unlikely to maintain the same speedy growth as last year, which registered a gross domestic product rise of 9.5 per cent year-on-year.
Zhang Xueying, a senior economist with the State Information Centre, said the accelerated profit growth in July did not mean there were significant improvements in the industrial companies' economic efficiency.
Industrial companies continued to shoulder great pressures from the high prices of energy and raw materials, he said.
"They are unable to transfer the increased costs into the prices of end-products," Zhang said. "They prefer to lose profits rather than market share amid fierce competition."
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