BEIJING — China's industrial performance has continued its recovery momentum, even though industrial profits edged down as a result of multiple factors, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Aug 27.

Major industrial firms, each with annual business revenue of at least 20 million yuan (about $2.92 million), saw their profits fall 1.1 percent year-on-year in the first seven months of 2022, to reach 4.89 trillion yuan, data from the NBS showed.

The combined revenues of these firms sustained a faster growth pace during the period, rising 8.8 percent year-on-year to 76.57 trillion yuan.

A total of 16 out of 41 major industries saw growth in profits in the January-July period, and 14 of them reported growth of over 5 percent.

NBS senior statistician Zhu Hong highlighted the recovery of the equipment manufacturing industry and the uptick of industrial profits of the automobile manufacturing sector, as supply and production chains are resuming, and pro-consumption policies such as the car purchase tax cuts are taking effect.

In July, the profits of the equipment manufacturing industry increased 6.8 percent year-on-year, up 2.7 percentage points compared with the growth registered in June and rebounding for three consecutive months.

Automobile manufacturing was one of the industries that saw the fastest profit growth, reporting a sharp profit surge of 77.8 percent in July, up 30.1 percentage points from June.

More efforts are needed to consolidate the recovery, said Zhu, citing reasons including relatively higher costs for businesses, softening market demands for certain sectors, increasing operating pressure, as well as a more complex global landscape.