Industrial profits up

Profits earned by China's industrial companies grew 43.7% year on year to US$51.3 billion in the first five months of the year, according to National Bureau of Statistics data. State-owned and state-controlled firms posted profits of US$26 billion for the period, a year-on-year increase of 41.7%. Bureau data also showed that industrial enterprises as a whole paid US$41 billion in taxes over the five months, a year-on-year increase of 23.6%. Over the same period, net losses by unprofitable concerns totaled US$6.7 billion, a 0.4% increase over the same period a year earlier.