China’s industrial firms’ profits surged last month, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, continuing momentum from April despite many analysts pointing to a cautious economic outlook for the next quarter.
Industrial profits jumped 21.1% year-on-year to RMB 607.1 billion ($92 billion) in May, after a 21.9% increase in April. That makes for a 16.5% increase for the first five months of 2018 from a year earlier.
NBS official He Ping said that last month’s profit growth was the result of price gains and lower costs, with heavy industry accounting for much of the gains. Other sectors such as electronics and telecommunications are still recovering from contractions in profits earlier in the year, he added.