BEIJING, May 1 (Xinhua) -- The following are the highlights of China's business news from the past week:
INDUSTRIAL PROFITS
Profits of China's major industrial firms maintained fast expansion in the first quarter (Q1) this year as the Chinese economy continued its recovery and enterprises' production and sales further restored growth.
Industrial firms with an annual business turnover of at least 20 million yuan (about 3.1 million U.S. dollars) raked in 1.83 trillion yuan in combined profits during the first three months, surging 137 percent year on year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
The figure jumped 50.2 percent compared with the same period in 2019. The fast expansion also put average first-quarter growth for 2020 and 2021 at 22.6 percent compared to the 2019 level, NBS data showed.
ODI
China's non-financial outbound direct investment (ODI) went down 4.9 percent year on year in Q1.
The ODI amounted to 160.81 billion yuan (about 24.8 billion U.S. dollars) in the period, according to the Ministry of Commerce.
China's non-financial ODI into countries along the Belt and Road sustained a steady growth. During the period, investment into these countries expanded 5.2 percent year on year, accounting for 17.8 percent of the total ODI. The share was up by 0.5 percentage points from the same period last year.
PMI
The purchasing managers' index (PMI) for China's manufacturing sector came in at 51.1 in April, slightly down from 51.9 in March, NBS data showed.
A reading above 50 indicates expansion, while a reading below reflects contraction.
The manufacturing sector maintained steady growth in April. The manufacturing PMI continued to expand on the basis of the apparent rebound in the previous month, weakening somewhat but still higher than the level of the same period in 2019 and 2020, NBS senior statistician Zhao Qinghe said. Enditem
