Profits of China's major industrial firms increased by 3.2 percent year on year in the first nine months of 2025, recovering at an accelerated pace, official data showed on Monday.
Industrial firms with an annual main business revenue of at least 20 million yuan (about 2.8 million U.S. dollars) saw their combined profits totalling 5.37 trillion yuan during this nine-month period, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
"From January to September, the profit growth rate of China's major industrial firms continued to rise, thanks to rapid growth in new quality productive forces, such as high-tech manufacturing and equipment manufacturing, driven by more proactive and effective macro policies and new growth drivers, and coupled with a lower comparison base from a year ago," said NBS statistician Yu Weining.
Yu added that the 3.2 percent year-on-year growth recorded from January to September marked the highest cumulative growth rate since August last year, and also represented an acceleration of 2.3 percentage points compared to the January-August period, indicating a trend of accelerated recovery.
From January to September, profits of high-tech manufacturing enterprises increased by 8.7 percent year on year, accelerating by 2.7 percentage points compared with the January-August period, contributing 1.6 percentage points to overall industrial profit growth, Yu noted.
In September alone, profits of the high-tech manufacturing sector achieved double-digit growth of 26.8 percent, serving as a significant driver of high-quality development in industrial enterprises, Yu said.
From January to September, major equipment manufacturing enterprises reported a 9.4 percent year-on-year increase in profits -- which boosted overall industrial profits by 3.4 percentage points, NBS data revealed.
In the equipment manufacturing industry, profits increased in all of its eight sub-sectors. Notably, the railway, shipbuilding and aerospace sector saw a rapid and significant increase of 37.3 percent in profits, while that of electronics and electrical machinery grew 12 and 11.3 percent, respectively.
From January to September, profits increased by 2.5 percent, 5.3 percent and 2.7 percent year on year for large, medium and small industrial firms, respectively.
In September, profits of major industrial firms surged by 21.6 percent year on year -- accelerating 1.2 percentage points from August, the NBS said.
Business revenue of these firms expanded 2.7 percent year on year in September, 0.8 percentage points faster than the previous month, the data showed.
The monthly growth rate of business revenue, meanwhile, accelerated for two consecutive months, creating favorable conditions for the sustained recovery of corporate profits, Yu said.
Looking ahead, Yu called for sustained efforts to expand domestic demand, strengthen domestic economic circulation, promote positive interplay between domestic and international economic flows, further stimulate market vitality and boost growth expectations -- in order to advance steady and healthy development of the industrial economy.
