【英语财经】中国工业利润增长加速 Industrial profits add to China economic cheer

Large Chinese companies reported strong profits in March, adding to evidence of an economic rebound despite continued concerns over their debt burdens.

Industrial profits rose 11.1 per cent in March to Rmb561bn ($86.5bn), the National Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday, bringing first-quarter growth in profits to 7.4 per cent. The March numbers are the strongest since July 2014.

A 4.8 per cent rise in the first two months of the year ended a seven-month string of negative growth. The March data reinforces that trend.

Despite the seemingly strong results, He Ping, an official in the bureau’s industrial department, struck a note of caution in a statement accompanying the data. “The pick-up in March industrial profits was partly due to an improving economy but it was not a balanced and stable recovery,” Mr He said.

China’s economy grew at 6.7 per cent in the first quarter, masking a growing divergence between the sectors and regions that are performing well and those reliant on heavy industry, oil or coal, which are struggling.

Data from the statistics bureau reflect that divergence. The growth in industrial profits was led by chemical companies, up 20.8 per cent, and agricultural or food processing companies, up 12.1 per cent.

Meanwhile, profits for coal miners fell by a startling 92.6 per cent, while a loss was reported for oil and gas producers.

Industrial companies’ debt also rose by 5.3 per cent to Rmb55.22tn at the end of the quarter, the statistics bureau said. China’s corporate debt burden is a growing concern for Beijing, and policymakers fear that excessive industrial capacity will depress corporate returns if not addressed.

Profits from investment and non-core activities “increased dramatically”, accounting for 30.5 per cent of March profits, the bureau said.

That is in line with concerns that Chinese companies may have taken on more debt, helping to drive the apparent pick-up in first-quarter activity but delaying more painful but lasting fundamental restructuring. The concerns are greater for the state-owned companies, which for years had easy access to debt at low, state-set interest rates which in some cases they lent on to the much higher-interest shadow banking sector.

The size of debt at the seven large state-owned coal companies in Shanxi province, the struggling heart of China’s coal country, is equivalent to the size of the entire provincial economy, the 21st Century Business Herald, a national newspaper, reported this week.

中国大型企业报告3月份实现强劲盈利，为经济反弹提供进一步证据，尽管企业债务负担仍令人担忧。

中国国家统计局(NBS)周三表示，3月份工业利润增长11.1%，至5610亿元人民币（合865亿美元），这使第一季度的利润增幅达到7.4%。3月份的数字是自2014年7月以来最强劲的。

1-2月份工业利润4.8%的增长结束了连续7个月的负增长。3月份的数据强化了这一趋势。

尽管利润数据看似强劲，但国家统计局工业司官员何平在伴随数据发布的一份声明中作出了谨慎的点评。“3月份工业利润增速回升，既有经济向好因素的影响，也带有不均衡、不稳定和恢复性质，”他写道。

中国经济在第一季度增长6.7%，这掩盖了行业和地区之间越来越大的差异：有些行业和地区表现良好，而那些依赖重工业、石油或煤炭的行业和地区正在苦苦挣扎。

国家统计局的数据反映了这种差异。1-3月份，引领工业利润增长的是化工企业（增长20.8%）以及农产品或食品加工企业（增长12.1%）。

与此同时，煤矿企业的利润暴跌92.6%，而石油和天然气生产商报告亏损。

国家统计局表示，工业企业的债务也上升了5.3%，在第一季度末达到55.22万亿元人民币。中国的企业债务负担是北京方面越来越关注的问题，同时政策制定者担心，工业产能过剩如果不加以解决，将压低企业的回报。

国家统计局表示，投资收益和营业外净收入对3月份利润增长“拉动明显”，在3月份工业新增利润中占30.5%。

这与以下这种担忧相吻合：中国企业可能背上了更多债务，这有助于推动首季经济活动的明显回升，但推迟了更为痛苦但具有持久效益的根本重组。围绕国有企业的担忧尤为严重，这些企业多年来能够以国家规定的较低利率轻松借到资金，在某些情况下，它们会转手放贷给利率高得多的影子银行业。

据中国的全国性报纸《21世纪经济报道》本周报道，在山西省这个陷入困境的中国煤炭腹地，七家大型国有煤炭企业的债务规模相当于整个省的经济规模。

译者/和风