Profits at China's major industrial companies rose 3.5% year-on-year in the first four months of the year, after slowing significantly in April due to pandemic prevention measures.

According to official data released today by the Chinese National Bureau of Statistics cited by Lusa, the growth rate for the period between January and April is 5 percentage points lower than that recorded in the period between January and March, when it rose by 8.5%.

Between January and April, the profits of the companies analyzed together reached 2.66 trillion yuan (366.6 billion euros).

The agency writes that in 2021, Chinese industrial firms will invoice 34.3% more than the previous year, in part because the corresponding period includes the first quarter of 2020, when China also imposed highly restrictive epidemic prevention measures.

For the elaboration of this indicator, the NBS takes into account only industrial companies with annual turnover of more than 20 million yuan (2.8 million euros).

"In April, the resurgence of the pandemic in some parts of the country had a major impact on the production and operation of industrial enterprises, whose profits were reduced," said Zhu Hong, NBS statistician.

The statistician specified that among the three sectors into which this indicator is divided, the fall in profits in April was most pronounced in manufacturing (-22.4%) and in the production and supply of electricity, heating, gas and water (-26.8%). In the mining sector, profits rose by 1.42%.