Half-yearly industrial profits jump nearly 67% in China

Beijing, July 27 (EFE).- Profits of Chinese industrial firms grew by 66.9 percent year-on-year in the first six months of 2021, the National Bureau of Statistics data showed Tuesday.

The jump is partly due to the coronavirus-induced slump last year as the Chinese economy got paralyzed by the pandemic in the first three months of 2020.

However, the NBS data showed that the surge in profits in the first half of 2021 is 45.5 percent, compared with the first six months of 2019.

NBS statistician Zhu Hong said it was due to the recovery in demand for industrial production and “the sustained improvement in the operating conditions of companies.”

In the first half of the year, the earnings were almost 4.22 trillion yuan ($651 billion).

The NBS only analysis those industrial companies with annual revenues greater than 20 million yuan for the indicator.

Of the 41 sectors analyzed, 39 registered increased profits in the first six months of 2021.

One went from losses to profits during the year, and another remained unchanged.

The main gainers were state companies with an increase in their profits of 111.9 percent year on year.

Private firms jumped by a little over 47.1 percent.

Industrial profits increased 20 percent year-on-year in June.

Despite an overall increase in the industrial profits “in a sustained manner,” NBS warned about the “unevenness in the recovery of corporate profitability” as private firms and small businesses faced a slow rebound. EFE

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