Profits of China's major industrial firms rose 17.6% year over year to 4.582 trillion yuan during the first seven months of the year, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released on Thursday.
The year-to-date pace decelerated from the 18.7% expansion recorded in the previous period, but surpassed the Trading Economics forecast for a 16.0% growth. In July alone, industrial profits rose 11.2% year over year.
From January to July, the mining industry achieved a total profit of 666.05 billion yuan, up 34.9% year over year, while the manufacturing industry's profit grew 18.8% to 3.438 trillion yuan.
Meanwhile, the electricity, heat, gas and water production and supply industry recorded a total profit of 478.42 billion yuan, down 5.8%.