China’s industrial profits drop 19% in 1st 5 months of 2020

June 28, 2020
Beijing:  The profits of China’s major industrial companies dropped by 19.3 per cent year on year between January and May this year due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said.

According to the NBS, industrial profits stood at 1.84 trillion yuan ($260 billion) for the first five months of the year, reports Efe news.

The figure is less than the projections offered by analysts, who had predicted a 22 per cent fall in profits during this period.

The indicator is based on the results of industrial firms with annual revenues above 20 million yuan.

Of the 41 industrial sectors surveyed by the NBS, 30 registered a drop in profits between January and May, one managed to retain the same profit while 10 witnessed their earnings rise.

Similarly, the profits of state companies fell by 39.3 per cent during the period, while the losses for private companies were smaller, with an 11 per cent drop.

The worst-hit sectors include oil, coal, and other fuels (-167.4 per cent), professional mining and auxiliary activities (-156.8 per cent), automobile (-33.5 per cent) and textile (-10.3 per cent).

On the other end of the spectrum, profits rose for companies producing electronic equipment (34.7 per cent), tobacco (28.1 per cent), and the agricultural and food processing industry (19 per cent).

NBS statistician Zhu Hong said the efficiency of major industrial firms continued to rise as the “restoration of work and production processes,” after a sudden halt in activities due to Covid-19 outbreak in the first few months of the year.

Although the expert admitted that the general scenario still amounted to a major decline with the 19.3 per cent fall in profits within the first five months of the year.

He said that the recovery in profits mainly registered in May was due to factors such as eased pressure on costs, prices, changes of industrial products, and the profit improvement in key industries such as petroleum processing, electricity, and steel.

Industrial profit is the latest in a series of economic indicators – such as international trade and manufacturing – that have demonstrated a major impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the Chinese economy.Princeton University to remove late US Prez’s name
(10:25)
Washington, June 28 (IANS) The prestigious Princeton University will remove the name of late US President Woodrow Wilson’s from its public policy school and a residential college since his “racist views and policies make him an inappropriate namesake”, it was announced.

The Princeton University Board of Trustees voted on Friday to remove the name, Xinhua news agency reported.

The school will be known as the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, while the college will simply be called First College.

“The trustees concluded that Woodrow Wilson’s racist thinking and policies make him an inappropriate namesake for a school or college whose scholars, students, and alumni must stand firmly against racism in all its forms,” Princeton President Christopher Eisgruber said in a letter on Saturday, noting the decision was on his recommendation.

“Wilson’s racism was significant and consequential even by the standards of his own time. He segregated the federal civil service after it had been racially integrated for decades, thereby taking America backward in its pursuit of justice.

“He not only acquiesced in but added to the persistent practice of racism in this country, a practice that continues to do harm today,” Eisgruber wrote.

The Princeton Board had previously considered removing Wilson’s name in 2016 months after a group of student activists occupied the university president’s office, Eisgruber noted.

However, Princeton will keep conferring the Woodrow Wilson Award as currently named, the Board said in a statement on Friday.

The award is the university’s highest honour for an undergraduate alumnus or alumna conferred annually on Alumni Day.

“Though scholars disagree about how to assess Wilson’s tenure as president of the US, many rank him among the nation’s greatest leaders and credit him with visionary ideas that shaped the world for the better,” the Princeton Board noted in the statement.

Wilson, a Democrat, served as President of Princeton University and as the 34th Governor of New Jersey before winning the 1912 presidential election.

He was the 28th US President from 1913 to 1921.

Earlier this week, trustees at New Jersey’s Monmouth University voted to remove Wilson’s name from its Great Hall.IANS