China June industrial profits rise 5.1% year-on-year

[BEIJING] Profits earned by China's industrial firms rose 5.1 per cent in June from the year earlier, quickening from May and suggesting a government spending spree is helping steady the economy.

Profits in June rose to 616.31 billion yuan (S$125.4 billion), the statistics bureau said on Wednesday. Profits in the mining sector fell 83.6 per cent in the first half from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said.

Industrial profits rose 6.2 per cent in the first half from the same period a year earlier, compared with a 6.4 per cent rise in the January-May period.

Chinese industrial firms' liabilities at the end of June were up 4.6 per cent from a year ago.

The data covers large enterprises with annual revenues of more than 20 million yuan from their main operations.

REUTERS