China's industrial profits accelerate 5% in first two months

Bejing: Chinese industrial companies' profit grew at a faster pace in the first two months of the year, despite it being a typically slower production period because of the holiday season.

Industrial profits rose 5 per cent in the January-February period from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said Sunday. That compares with a 4.2 per cent increase in the single-month data for December, Bloomberg reported.

The pickup is due to larger profits registered by energy and raw materials enterprises from higher commodities prices, according to a statement from NBS official Zhu Hong.

China's manufacturers have been squeezed recently by elevated factory inflation, with surging global oil and gas prices due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine clouding the outlook. Tax reductions may provide some relief to those firms this year, but weak domestic spending and slowing global demand will likely curb output.

Factories are encountering fresh challenges this month. The country's biggest Covid outbreak since the start of the pandemic two years ago has spurred strict containment measures, forcing some factories to temporarily halt

production.