China’s industrial profit shoots up during Jan-Feb
Shanghai, China, Mar 27 (efe-epa).- The profits of China’s major industrial firms soared 179 percent year-on-year in the first two months of 2021 due to the low comparative base period which last year bore the major economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic in China.
Profits during January and February also grew 71.1 percent compared to the same period of 2019, according to data published on Saturday by the National Bureau of Statistics of China (NBS), which points to a rapid growth inertia since the end of last year.
The profits of China’s major industrial companies in the first two months of the year stood at 1.11 trillion yuan ($170.3 billion).
The statistical office only considers major industrial companies with an annual business turnover of at least 20 million yuan to calculate this indicator.
Of the 41 sectors analyzed by the NBS, 38 posted an increase in their earnings during these two months while two recorded lower profits and another remained at the same level.
The NBS highlights the increase in profits of the computer and communications equipment manufacturing industry, which increased almost 59 times, as well as that of the automobile industry, which jumped 25 times.
Last year – when the indicator fell by more than 38 percent – manufacturing was virtually paralyzed for weeks after the Lunar New Year at the end of January, the same time when the authorities began the world’s first Covid-19 lockdown in the city where the first outbreak of the disease was detected, Wuhan.
This year, amid some outbreaks detected in early January, the government announced restrictions and discouraged people from traveling during the New Year holiday in early February and many factories remained open during that period.
NBS statistician Zhu Hong warned that despite the rapid recovery, the international situation remained complex and serious so it was necessary to further consolidate the trend.
Zhu added that the profits of some industries were still not balanced while those of some consumer goods industries were yet to return to pre-pandemic levels. EFE-EPA
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