China's industrial profits up 25% y-o-y in Oct; bank assets grow by 10%

Profits earned by China's industrial companies in October rose 25.1 per cent from a year earlier, the statistics bureau said on Monday, slowing from a 27.7 per cent gain in September.

Profits rose to 745.4 billion yuan ($112.94 billion) in October, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on its website.

In September, profits surged the most in nearly six years as prices of finished goods including steel and copper soared.

Prices had jumped due to fears of supply shortages in the winter amid an ongoing government crackdown on air pollution.

In the first 10 months, industrial profits rose 23.3 per cent from a year earlier, versus the 22.8 per cent increase in January-September, according to the statistics bureau.

At the end of October, industrial firms' liabilities were 6.7 per cent higher than a year earlier, with the growth rate unchanged from the end of September.

The data covers large companies with annual revenue of more than 20 million yuan from their main operations.

The value of assets held by China's banking sector rose 10.0 per cent to 241.58 trillion yuan ($36.61 trillion) as of end-October compared with a year earlier, the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) said on Monday.

Liabilities rose 10.0 per cent from a year earlier to 222.66 trillion yuan, it said on its website.

($1 = 6.5998 Chinese yuan renminbi)