Industrial profits see first rise in six months

Mainland industrial companies' profits rose last month for the first time in six months, adding to signs growth is picking up after a seven-quarter slowdown.

Net income rose 7.8 per cent from a year earlier to 464.3 billion yuan (HK$572.3 billion), the National Bureau of Statistics said yesterday in Beijing. That compared with a 6.2 per cent decline in August, the year's largest drop.

The report followed data showing that industrial production and retail sales had accelerated last month and a manufacturing gauge had risen this month.

Premier Wen Jiabao said the economy would keep showing "positive changes", reported the official Xinhua News Agency last week.

"As upstream commodity prices are falling, Chinese corporate profits have room to rise," said Wang Tao, chief China economist at UBS in Hong Kong.

Industrial companies' profits in the first nine months of the year declined 1.8 per cent to 3.5 trillion yuan, according to yesterday's statement. That compares with a 3.1 per cent drop in the first eight months and a 27 per cent gain in the same period last year.