BEIJING (Reuters) – Annual profits of Chinese industrial companies rose in the first two months of 2021, reflecting a resurgence in the country’s manufacturing sector and a broad recovery in economic activity from an early coronavirus crisis last year.
Profits were at 1.114 trillion yuan ($ 170.31 billion) in the first two months of 2021, up 179% from the same period last year when economic activity paralyzed COVID-19, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on Saturday . .
They were also up 72.1% from 2019 levels, bringing the two-year average growth to 31.2%, according to NBS. Profits had risen 20.1% in December.
The figures combine data for January and February to curb divisions caused by a week-long Lunar New Year, which fell in February 2021.
“As a result of a combination of factors such as stabilizing domestic and foreign demand, low bases and the‘ stay push ’initiative over the Lunar New Year, growth in industrial production and sales accelerated, the reversal accelerated in corporate revenue and profits and profits have recovered significantly, ”NBS senior statistician Zhu Hong said in a statement accompanying the data.
Millions of employees who typically travel home over the Lunar New Year holidays had stayed away this year because of fears of COVID-19. That kept factories down over time.
Margins in the raw materials manufacturing sector rose 346% from a year earlier, data showed, as factory gate prices were accelerating at the fastest pace in more than two years.
China’s industrial output rose in the first two months of the year, while exports, China’s main driver of growth after the pandemic panic, rose at a higher pace in February.
China managed to contain the COVID-19 pandemic ahead of many of its peers last year, making it the only major economy to deliver full-year growth in 2020, with an increase of 2.3%.
Beijing has set an annual economic growth target of more than 6% this year, well below analysts’ expectations, with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang saying the setting of growth targets would vary widely from year to year “Concerns about market expectations.
Liabilities at industrial firms rose 9.4% year-over-year at the end of February, compared to 6.1% growth at the end of 2020.
The business profit data covers large companies with annual revenues of more than 20 million Yuan from their main operations.
($ 1 = 6,5412 Chinese Yuan renminbi)
Reciting with Stella Qiu and Ryan Woo; Additional statement by Roxanne Liu