Factory profit records first growth this year

The profit growth of Chinese industrial firms was positive for the first time this year as economic order further normalized from the COVID-19 epidemic in May, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Sunday.

Total profits of major industrial firms went up 6 percent year-on-year and stood at 582.34 billion yuan ($82.29 billion) last month, compared to a 4.3 percent fall on a yearly basis in April, the bureau reported.

For the January-May period, the fall in industrial profits narrowed for the third consecutive month to 19.3 percent year-on-year, recovering from the 27.4 percent plunge over the first four months.

Zhu Hong, a senior NBS statistician, mainly attributed the improvement to the mitigation of rising cost pressure, the deeper drop in prices of industrial materials compared to finished goods, and the significant recovery in profits of key industries such as petroleum processing, power, chemical and steel.

"Although industrial profits achieved the first growth this year in May, market demand was still weak due to the COVID-19 impact. The sustainability of profit recovery remains to be seen," Zhu said.

Compared with April, the growth in industrial sales slowed last month, while the number of industrial sectors with improved profit situation decreased, according to Zhu.