BEIJING, April 6 -- Foreign-invested firms as well as those with investors from China's Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan regions reported profit growth of 31.2 percent year on year in the first two months of 2024, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The recently released NBS data showed general growth in China's industrial economy. According to the data, profits of large, medium-sized, and small companies grew by 8 percent, 6 percent, and 18.9 percent, respectively, year on year during the first two months of 2024.

The data also revealed that the business revenues of surveyed industrial firms rose by 4.5 percent year on year during this period -- which marked an increase of 3.4 percentage points from the growth rate registered for the whole of 2023, indicating a recovery in the industrial economy.

While noting the positive rebound of industrial production in China in the first two months of this year, Wang Xin, chief statistician at the NBS industrial statistics department, said the current international situation remained "complicated and severe" in the face of challenges such as insufficient effective demand and corporate profitability, which means that the recovery momentum of the industrial economy needs to be further consolidated.