China’s industrial giants saw their monthly profits grow for a third successive month in July, but remained negative in the first seven months of the year, reported the South China Morning Post.
Last month, profits of industrial firms saw a year on year increase of 19.6%, improving from the increase of 11.5% in June, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on Thursday. This was the fastest pace since June 2018 when profits grew by 20%.
In the first seven months of the year, however, profits fell by 8.1%, with May, June and July representing the only months of growth in 2020. Industrial profits at China’s biggest firms fell by 12.8% year-on-year in the first six months of 2020.
Total profits in for the first seven months of the year reached RMB 3.1 trillion ($450 billion). In July alone, profits stood at RMB 589.51 billion ($85.5 billion).