Industry profits rise in March

China’s major industrial firms continued to post double-digit growth in March, adding to signs of a stabilizing Chinese economy, official data showed on Thursday. The companies reported a 23.8-percent yearon-year profit growth last month, slowing from 31.5 percent in January and February but still much faster than the 8.5-percent increase in 2016, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. In the first three months of the year, profits of major industrial firms rose 28.3 percent year-on-year, the NBS said in a statement. The industrial sector, which accounts for about a third of China’s GDP, started to pick up last year after profit declines in 2015, helped by government efforts to cut overcapacity and a recovery of the property industry. Value-added industrial output expanded 6.8 percent year-on-year in the first three months. use of foreign capital amid China’s opening up. In Shanghai, overseas enterprises account for 2 percent of all enterprises by number but they contribute to 27 percent of the city’s GPD. The Shanghai government said it will strive to make overseas investment easier, and make the market more transparent and fair for all players.