The profits of China's industrial enterprises jumped by 39.7 percent year-on-year to 608.5 billion yuan (US$73.6 billion) in the first seven months of the year, according to official statistics released Tuesday.

The figures of the National Bureau of Statistics cover all state-owned enterprises and non-state enterprises each with an annual sales above 5 million yuan.

The bureau said in a monthly report the profits of state-owned enterprises soared by 40.9 percent over one year ago to 305.2 billion yuan in the first seven months, while those of private companies surged by 46.3 percent.

Industrial enterprises involving capital from foreign countries as well as Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan reaped a total profit of 192 billion yuan, up 33.7 percent.

Among the 39 categories of industrial enterprises, the oil industry saw increase in profits, while such sectors as building materials, non-ferrous metal and steel lost speed in profit growth.

The industrial profits was counted before deducting losses, according to the bureau. The losses of money-losing industrial enterprises reached 76.2 billion yuan in the first seven months, up 7.4 percent from the correspondent period of last year.

In the January-July period, industrial enterprises paid a total of 483.6 billion yuan in taxes, up 22 percent over one year ago.

Meanwhile their inventories went up 19.8 percent to 961.1 billion yuan, which partly led to tightening cash flow.

(Xinhua News Agency August 24, 2004)