The composite index measuring industrial enterprises' economic efficiency reached 128.6 points during the January-November period, an increase of 7.5 points compared with the same period last year.

Industrial firms made profits of 495.6 billion yuan (US$59.7 billion), a year-on-year increase of 19.5 percent.

The growth rate was 3.2 percentage points higher than the rate for the first 10 months, the bureau said.

The strong growth was mainly driven by big earnings from producers of transport equipment, chemicals, ferrous metals and machinery and also oil processing firms, it said.

The profits of transport-equipment firms soared by 16 billion yuan (US$1.9 billion) during the 11 months compared with the year before, while the profits of chemical producers rose by 9.1 billion yuan (US$1.1 billion) and those of oil processors rose by 6.7 billion yuan (US$807 million).

The profits of ferrous metal companies climbed 6 billion yuan (US$722 million) during the January-November period compared with a year ago, while those of machinery makers grew by 5.4 billion yuan (US$650 million).

"The earnings rise in the five sectors accounted for 53.5 percent of the increased profits of the whole industrial sector," the bureau said.

The growth in profits of Chinese industrial firms is picking up thanks to accelerating growth of the economy as a whole, said Zhang Xueying, a senior economist with the State Information Centre.

China's economy grew a year-on-year 7.9 percent during the first nine months of 2002.

The growth rate accelerated during that period, from 7.6 percent in the first quarter to 8.0 per cent in the second quarter and 8.1 percent in the third quarter.

The State Economic and Trade Commission said earlier this month that the Chinese economy is likely to see growth of 8 percent for the whole of this year.

During the January-November period, State-owned industrial firms and firms in which the State holds a majority stake made profits of 232.7 billion yuan (US$28 billion), a year-on-year increase of 10.2 percent, the statistics bureau said.

(China Daily December 25, 2002)