China economy: Industrial profits growth accelerates in October

Profits at China’s industrial firms grew at a faster pace in October, the statistics bureau said on Saturday, providing a buffer for a faltering economy battered by soaring raw material prices. Profits in October rose 24.6% from a year earlier to 818.7 billion yuan ($128.1 billion), the official data showed, quickening from a 16.3% gain reported in September. For the January-October period, industrial firms’ profits rose 42.2% year-on-year to 7.2 trillion yuan, slower than a 44.7% rise in the first nine months of 2021. The industrial profit data covers large firms with annual revenues of over 20 million yuan from…