China's industrial sector posted stronger growth in the first half of this year, with rises in earnings suggesting sustained recovery.
In the first six months, the total profits of the country's major industrial firms were up 3.5 percent, accelerating from a 3.4 percent increase in the January-May period, according to the data released by National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Saturday.
In June alone, the profits of industrial enterprises above designated size increased by 3.6 percent, a growth of 2.9 percentage points from May.
The NBS also reported that from January to June, equipment manufacturing industry saw a year-on-year profit growth of 6.6 percent, providing strong support for the overall industrial profit growth. The increasing production and sales of high-tech products, including smartphones, integrated circuits, and new energy vehicles drove a double-digit profit growth in the electronics and automotive industries.
The shipbuilding industry also improved its competitiveness with a rapid increase in orders, bringing a 36 percent growth in profits for the railway, shipbuilding, aerospace, and other transportation equipment industry from a year ago.
Furthermore, the profits of the consumer goods manufacturing industry have grown rapidly, due to the recovery of domestic consumer demand, coupled with factors such as the accelerated growth of industrial product exports.
In the first half of the year, profits in the consumer goods manufacturing industry grew by 10 percent year on year, continuing the trend of double-digit growth since the beginning of the year.
"Looking ahead to the full year, a variety of favorable policies, including large-scale equipment renewals and consumer goods trade-ins, will provide more positive elements to the recovery of industrial profits," said Wei Qijia, director of the industrial economy research office of the State Information Center under the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).
China's industrial sector gathers steam over rises in first-half earnings
China's industrial sector gathers steam over rises in first-half earnings
