China Industrial Profits Accelerate as Factory Prices Increase

• China Industrial Profits Accelerate as Factory Prices Increase

Profit at industrial companies in China accelerated last month as prices recovered.

Industrial profits rose 9.8 percent in October from a year earlier to 616.1 billion yuan ($89 billion), the National Bureau of Statistics said Sunday. That was faster than the 7.7 percent increase in September. Earnings in the first 10 months climbed 8.6 percent to 5.26 trillion yuan.

Increasing profit and stronger producer-price inflation may help industrial companies gain ground in paying down debt. The recovery comes amid steady economic growth that endured the imposition of government rules to cool property market speculation.

“The recovery in profits is welcome,” Alessandro Theiss, a senior economist at Oxford Economics Ltd., wrote in a report before the data was released. “If sustained, it should somewhat alleviate the need for fast credit growth.”