1970-01-01 08:33:27
By Shangguan Zhoudong A series of China's industrial figures published by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) include four highlights, according to sources at Economic Information Daily.
The four highlights are:
1. Self financing is the most important factor to drive profits growth.
China's industrial profits swelled 42.1 percent from last year's figure to 902.6 billion yuan (US$119.08 billion) in the first five months of this year.
So far in 2007, a total of 4.03 trillion yuan has been invested in urban areas, up 23.7 percent year on year.
From January to May this year, capital raised via self financing, overseas capital, and domestic loans grew 29.2 percent, 16.6 percent and 14.1 percent respectively year on year.
Zhu Baoliang, chief economist of the Department of Economic Forecast of the State Information Center, said that self financing is the most important factor in the growth of enterprise profits.
The shift in enterprise financing means that the government must use new macroeconomic control measures to cool down investment growth in addition to its current monetary policies, which are used to tighten credits.
2. Due to the growing gap between heavy and light industries, the situation is not conducive to saving energy and reducing the emission of pollutants.
Fixed assets investment in urban areas surged 25.9 percent year-on-year to 3,204.5 billion yuan between January and May.
The rapid growth was mostly due to surging investment in energy intensive and real estate sectors.
The growth rates of heavy industries are far higher than those of light industries. The added value of heavy industries in May increased by 18.89 percent, or 1.89 billion yuan, from the same month a year earlier, while the added value of light industries in the month grew 15.9 percent year on year, signaling heavy industries were the major contributors to investment growth.
The rapid growth of heavy industries means energy intensive and pollution generating industries continue to consume high levels of resources.
China's Ministry of Finance last month announced a plan effective from July 1 to adjust tariff rebates on 2,831 commodities, which account for 37 percent of the total items listed on the customs tax regulations.
The finance ministry will also abolish export tax rebates on 553 "highly polluting products that consume large amounts of energy and resources" such as salt, cement, and liquefied petroleum gas.
3. State owned and private enterprises record higher profits.
State owned and state controlled companies above a designated size (enterprises with an annual income over five million yuan), generated 419.3 billion yuan in profits, up 42.3 percent year on year. Meanwhile private enterprises recorded 137.9 billion yuan in profits, up 48.6 percent year on year. Both of their growth rates were higher than the overall profit growth of industrial enterprises.
4. Urban investment in central and western regions is higher than in the east.
From January to May of this year, fixed assets investments in urban areas amounted to 3204.5 billion yuan, and gained a year on year increase of 25.9 percent. Of that increase, the investment in China's eastern areas reached 1,747.6 billion yuan, up 21.8 percent year on year, while the central and western areas recorded 742.9 billion yuan and 680.9 billion yuan respectively, up 36.4 and 27.8 percent year on year.
(chinadaily.com.cn)