BEIJING — Profits of China's major industrial firms rose 5 percent year-on-year in the first two months of 2022, official data showed on March 27.

The growth rate went up 0.8 percentage points from December last year, the National Bureau of Statistics said.

Industrial firms each with annual main business revenue of at least 20 million yuan ($3.14 million) saw their combined profits reach 1.16 trillion yuan in the two months.

In the January-February period, the revenues of those firms went up 13.9 percent year-on-year to 19.4 trillion yuan, and 21 out of 41 industries saw growth in profits.

At the end of February, their assets totaled 142.24 trillion yuan, up 10.4 percent year-on-year. Their liabilities totaled 80.03 trillion yuan, up 10.2 percent. The ratio of liabilities to assets was 56.3 percent, down 0.1 percentage points year- on-year.

In the face of economic challenges at home and abroad, many regions and departments have boosted support for the real economy, facilitating the steady recovery of the industrial sector in January and February, said Zhu Hong, a senior statistician with the NBS.

Zhu highlighted those sectors involving energy raw materials, as they have contributed much to the increase in industrial profits in the past two months.

Among them, the profits of the mining industry increased by 1.32 times year-on-year, much higher than the average.

Driven by the rising prices of crude oil and coal, the profits of the oil and gas exploitation sector rose by 1.57 times and the profits of the coal exploitation and washing sector expanded by 1.55 times year-on-year.

Due to the rising prices of non-ferrous metals and chemical products, the profits of non-ferrous metal smelting industry went up 63.8 percent and the profits of the chemical industries went up 27.3 percent year-on-year.

Despite rising profits, Zhu cautioned against rising costs for businesses, noting that the downstream enterprises, especially the smaller ones, are still under pressure.

More efforts should be made to ensure the supply of bulk commodities, so as to steady their prices, cut production costs for enterprises, carry out the supporting policies for the manufacturing industry, and fulfill the tax-cut policies for small businesses, Zhu said.