(ATF) Profits of China’s major industrial firms dropped 19.3% year-on-year in the first five months of the year due to the coronavirus impact, official data showed Sunday.
Profits of industrial companies with annual revenue of more than 20 million yuan ($2.8m) totaled 1.84 trillion yuan during the January-May period, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
The contraction narrowed from a 27.4% decline in the first four months, NBS data showed.
In the January-May period, profits at 10 of the 41 industrial sectors surveyed logged annualised increases, while 30 sectors saw their profits fall, according to the NBS.
In breakdown, profits of the mining and manufacturing industries slid 43.6% and 16.6%, respectively, while that of the production and supply of electricity, thermal power, gas and water reported a decrease of 16.7%.
In May alone, industrial profits climbed 6%, compared with a 4.3% decrease registered in April.
Efficiency of major industrial firms continued to improve in May as the restoration of work and production after the coronavirus lockdown continued, NBS statistician Zhu Hong said.
Zhu attributed the rebound in industrial profits last month to factors including eased pressure on costs, prices changes of industrial products and the profit improvement in key industries such as petroleum processing, electricity and steel.
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