CHINA'S industrial companies posted a 17.2 percent jump in combined profits to 709.2 billion yuan (US$143.9 billion) in the first two months this year compared to the same period in 2012, adding to signs of economic recovery, the National Bureau of Statistics said yesterday.
"The industrial profit figure in the first two months extended the recovery trend starting from the fourth quarter of last year," He Ping, a bureau official, said.
Annual growth in December was 17.3 percent, slower than the 22.8 percent rise in November.
The bureau did not release separate figures for January and February as the moveable Chinese New Year can reduce the number of working days in either month.
All 41 sectors surveyed by the bureau recorded better performance this year, with 30 saying profits rose in the first two months, led by a 170 percent jump for steel companies and a 150 percent surge for power and heating suppliers.
Petroleum refiners, coking and nuclear processors swung into profit in the first two months compared with losses in the same period of last year. Power, steel and petroleum refining contributed more than 50 percent of the total industrial profit growth in the first two months, the bureau said.
But it added that this year's increase could be partly attributed to an exceptionally low figure for 2012's first two months. January-February factory profits added an average 5.4 percent each year since 2011, it said.
"We think the momentum for profit growth may not be very strong," analysts at China Dragon Securities wrote in a note. "Investment in infrastructure will still be the major source for factory profits amid weak overseas demand."
However, the figures follow a raft of other indicators, including manufacturing activities and foreign trade, that point to a steady and mild recovery.
The HSBC Flash China Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index, the earliest available indicator of the industrial sector's vitality, climbed back to 51.7 in March from a dip in February. That was close to a two-year high of 51.9 recorded this January. A reading above 50 signals expansion.
February data showed China exports gained 21.8 percent from a year earlier, lower than January's 25 percent surge but far exceeding the 15 percent many analysts had expected.
China posted its weakest growth in 13 years last year, by rising 7.8 percent year on year, but a rebound in the final quarter pointed to recovery.
Analysts have predicted the country's economy will pick up slightly in 2013, as the global economy is stabilizing and government measures and reforms are taking effect.
China vowed to continue to seek a higher "quality and efficiency" of growth this year and shift toward domestic demand.
