The South China Morning Post reports profit growth in China’s industrial sector picked up in October, aided by stronger sales and higher prices, suggesting further strengthening of the world’s second-largest economy, although growth was skewed towards high-polluting heavy industry. Profits in October rose 9.8% to 616.1 billion yuan (HK$690 billion), the National Bureau of Statistics said in a statement on Sunday. Profits in September rose 7.7%. Industrial profits rose 8.6% in the first 10 months from the same period a year earlier, similar to an 8.4% growth rate in the first nine months of the year. Profits in the coal mining sector rose 112.9% for January-October from the same period a year earlier while manufacturing profits rose 13.2%. Profits for iron and steel production and processing companies rose 310.2% in January-October.