Industrial profits fell by 3.4% from January to April year on year

The financial data of industrial enterprises showed that the total profit of Industrial Enterprises above the national scale decreased by 3.4% from January to April 2019, which was roughly the same as that of January to March.

From January to April, the profit situation of industrial enterprises showed the following characteristics:

Firstly, the profit of major industries such as iron and steel, petroleum processing, petroleum exploitation and chemical industry improved. From January to April, the profit of the petroleum exploitation industry increased by 19.7% year on year, 9.4 percentage points faster than that of January to March. The profit of the steel, petroleum processing and chemical industries decreased by 28.1%, 50.2% and 16.0% year on year, respectively, and the decline was 16.4%, 4.3 and 1.8 percentage points narrower than that of January to March.

Secondly, nearly 70% of the industry's profits increased year-on-year. From January to April, profits in 27 of the 41 major industries increased year on year, accounting for 66%. The major industries with the most new profits are: tobacco products industry, with a 29.4% increase over the same period last year; wine, beverage and refined tea industry, with an increase of 18.1%; electrical machinery and equipment manufacturing industry, with an increase of 14.5%; non-metallic mineral products industry, with an increase of 12.6%; electricity, thermal production and supply industry, with an increase of 12.3%.

Thirdly, the profit decline of state-owned holding enterprises has narrowed. From January to April, the profit of state-owned holding enterprises decreased by 9.7% year on year, which was 3.7 percentage points narrower than that of January to March.

Fourthly, the profit of private enterprises keeps increasing. From January to April, the profits of private enterprises increased by 4.1% year on year.

Fifthly, the decrease of asset-liability ratio. At the end of April, the ratio of assets to liabilities of Industrial Enterprises above scale was 56.8%, which was 0.5 percentage points lower than that of the previous year. Among them, the asset-liability ratio of state-owned holding enterprises is 58.4%, which is reduced by 1.1 percentage points.

As a result of the reduction of VAT tax rate on April 1, the demand for some industrial products was released ahead of time in March. In addition, with a high base in the same period, the profits of Industrial Enterprises above the scale fell by 3.7% year on year in April, which fluctuated greatly compared with March. But in terms of average growth rate, profits in March and April increased by an average of 5.0%.