NBS data on industrial profit ‘genuine and reliable’

The data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on China’s industrial profit for the first five months of this year is “genuine and reliable.” And the reason why the reported growth rate of industrial profit from January to May is different from the ratio calculated with 2017’s figure is because of a reduction in sample, the NBS said on Wednesday.

The comment comes after the NBS released China’s industrial profit data on June 26, which showed that profits at the country’s large industrial companies jumped 16.5 percent year-on-year to 2.73 trillion yuan ($411 billion) in the first five months of this year.

But according to NBS data released in June 2017, the industrial profit of China’s large enterprises was 2.90 trillion yuan during the same period in 2017, which translates to a slowdown in industrial profit growth and therefore triggered market speculation on the authenticity of the NBS data.

Responding to market concerns, NBS explained that the reason behind the difference is that over the last year, there have been certain fluctuations in the operations of industrial companies. “While some expanded their volumes beyond 20 million yuan, other business operations shrank, and overall there was a reduction in the number of large industrial companies,” said an NBS statement.

To strengthen the quality of data, the NBS this year also took out surveyed companies whose subsidiaries have been repetitively included in the sample, the statement noted.

Furthermore, the profit of Stateowned enterprises (SOEs) in the first five months also provides a clue about the authenticity of the NBS data. From January to May, SOE profits grew 20.9 percent, which is in line with the industrial profit growth.