China May industrial profits up 8.9%

BEIJING (REUTERS)- Profits earned by Chinese industrial firms rose 8.9 percent in May to 512.7 billion yuan ($82.6 billion)from a year earlier, slowing from a 9.6 percent rise in April, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Friday.

For the first five months of 2014, profits rose 9.8 percent from the same period of last year to 2.28 trillion yuan, the bureau said.

Recent data reinforced market expectations that the world's second-largest economy is powering through its recent soft patch as the government uses targeted measures to support growth, even if the recovery may be patchy.

Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.