The profits of China's major industrial companies contracted by 18.8% year-on-year in the first five months of the year, the country's National Bureau of Statistics said today, as quoted by Notícias ao Minuto.

The profits of the companies surveyed amounted to 2.67 trillion yuan (337.3 billion euros) between January and May.

The indicator performed even more negatively in the first four months of the year, during which it showed a year-on-year decline of 20.6%.

The profits of Chinese industrial companies fell by 12.6% in May, year-on-year, which is 5.6 percentage points less than the previous month, said the representative of the statistics bureau, Sun Xiao.

Sun Xiao highlighted the relative recovery of the manufacturing sector, although he warned that the profits of industrial companies still face pressure from "insufficient" domestic demand and an "increasingly complex and serious" international environment.

In drawing up this statistic, the office only takes into account industrial companies with an annual turnover of more than 20 million yuan (2.5 million euros).