China's August industrial profits up by 3-year high of 19.5%

Beijing

PROFITS in China's industrial sector rose at the fastest pace in three years as the world's second biggest economy showed more signs of stabilising, though some private forecasters said that the improvement may be more fleeting than real.

Profits of industrial firms in August jumped 19.5 per cent from a year earlier to 534.8 billion yuan (S$109.1 billion), the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Tuesday. That was the largest increase since August 2013.

China's economy grew 6.9 per cent last year, the slowest in 25 years, as global demand ebbed. Following billions of dollars in government spending and a property boom in the country's top-tier cities, official data in recent months are starting to point to some…