China's industrial profits decline 10.6%

       Profits at China's oil producers, steel makers and other major industrial companies fell 10.6% in the first eight months of 2009 from the same period a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said yesterday.
       Total profits for the biggest Chinese industrial companies -those with annual revenues above 5 million yuan ($732,000)- were 1.67 trillion yuan ($245 billion) from January to August, data showed.
       The data highlighted the impact of the global economic crisis on China's biggest companies, both private and state-owned, despite a multi-billiondollar government stimulus plan.
       But it also marked an improvement from the last such survey in May, in which industrial profits fell 22.9% to 850 billion yuan ($124 billion) in the first five months of 2009 from the same period a year earlier.
       Hardest hit were the iron and steel sector, where profits declined by 71.7%,and the petroleum and natural gas industries, which suffered a 68.5% drop in profits.