国内英语资讯:Economic Watch: Chinas industrial profits maintain good growth_时事

国内英语资讯:Economic Watch: Chinas industrial profits maintain good growth

In April, new profits from consumer-goods manufacturing accounted for 21.6 percent of the overall profit increase, up 9.8 percentage points from the March level, while high-tech manufacturing accounted for 23.2 percent of the total, up 19 percentage points from the previous month.

In the four months, major industrial firms also saw profitability of their primary business edge up 0.53 percentage points to 6.04 percent. By the end of April, their debt-asset ratio dropped 0.6 percentage points to 56.2 percent.

However, He pointed out that sectors like steel-making, auto-manufacturing and chemicals had witnessed significant declines in profit growth due to falling industrial price gains, lower production and sales growth and rising costs.

Profits from ferrous metal companies dropped 7.8 percent year on year in April, compared with a 1.3-fold increase in March, while auto makers reported a 6.7 percent drop in profits, down from a 18.7 percent rise in March.

He also attributed the overall growth decline to a slower rise in finished products and raw materials prices.

China's producer inflation continued to ease in April as retreating commodity prices pushed down factory-gate prices. The producer price index, which measures costs of goods at the factory gate, rose 6.4 percent year on year last month, compared with a 7.6 percent growth in March.

The statistician cautioned that a faster growth in producer purchasing prices, which climbed 9 percent in April, than that of factory-gate prices could lead to higher costs in midstream and downstream industries.