China's Oct industrial profits down 2.1%

BEIJING - The profits of Chinese industrial businesses recorded a drop of 2.1 percent year on year, hitting 575.47 billion yuan ($94.34 billion) in October, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday.

Profits rose 0.4 percent in September, decreased 0.6 percent in August and gained 13.5 percent in July year on year.

NBS statistician He Ping attributed the drop to sluggish market demand, rising labor costs and dropping product prices.

The total profits of industrial companies during the first ten months reached 4.94 trillion yuan, up 6.7 percent year on year. However, growth decelerated by 1.2 percentage points from the January-September period.

During the first ten months of 2014, 33 of the 41 sectors surveyed reported year on year profit rises, with eight sectors seeing drops. Coal mining profits declined 45.2 percent year on year.

Private firms saw relatively stable profit growth at 8.7 percent for January-October. Profits of state-owned enterprises dropped 1.2 percent year on year in the first ten months.

Companies funded with overseas investment posted the strongest growth in profits during the first ten months, with an increase of 12.6 percent year on year.

NBS's calculations include companies with annual business revenues exceeding 20 million yuan.