China Industrial-Profit Growth Accelerates

China's industrial-profit growth accelerated in August, driven by higher prices for industrial goods and lower production costs.

China's industrial profit rose 24% from a year earlier in August, picking up from a 16.5% increase in July, the National Bureau of Statistics said.

Profit growth in the petroleum, steel and electronic sectors improved significantly in August, which helped boost overall profit growth, said He Ping, an economist with the statistics bureau.

In the first eight months of 2017, China's industrial profit grew 21.6% from a year earlier, compared with a 21.2% increase in the January-July period.

The statistics bureau also said the debt-to-equity ratio of China's industrial firms decreased further to 55.7%, compared with 55.8% in July.

Write to Grace Zhu at grace.zhu@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 26, 2017 22:11 ET (02:11 GMT)