Chinese industrial businesses saw profits rise 9.7 percent year on year in November, slowing from 15.1 percent in October, official data showed on Friday.
Total profits of industrial companies with annual revenues of more than 20 million yuan (3.3 million US dollars) reached 707 billion yuan in November, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said in a statement.
In the first 11 months, their profits rose 13.2 percent from the same period last year to 5.33 trillion yuan, down from 13.7 percent in the first ten months.
Among the 41 industries surveyed, 27 posted year-on-year profit growth during the January-November period, 12 saw their profits decline, while the oil refining, coking and nuclear fuel processing sector and the water production and supply sector turned losses into gains, the NBS said.
In a breakdown, private businesses led the growth, with their combined profits up 16.3 percent year on year in the first 11 months, while state enterprises saw profits up 8.4 percent.
The steady growth in industrial profits pointed to a stabilizing economy in transition.
Miao Wei, minister of industry and information technology, said on Friday that the value-added output of industrial companies with annual revenues of more than 20 million yuan will increase 9.8 percent in 2013 with more profits but less energy and water consumption.
Total profits of these companies will rise 13 percent, while the consumption of energy and water per unit of industrial value-added will drop by 4.8 percent and 8 percent respectively, said the minister at a national industry and information technology meeting.
From January to November, the growth of high-tech industries was two percentage points higher than that of all industries, he said, adding the western regions outperformed the eastern regions in terms of industrial output expansion.
Following the release of the data, Chinese shares closed higher on Friday, partly due to the upbeat data, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index up 1.36 percent to 2,101.25 points.
