Profits of China's major industrial firms increased 0.9 percent year on year in the first eight months of 2025, reversing the 1.7 percent decline in the January-July period, official data showed Saturday.
Industrial firms with an annual main business revenue of at least 20 million yuan (about 2.81 million U.S. dollars) saw their combined profits totaling nearly 4.7 trillion yuan during the eight-month period, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. Operating revenue of these firms reached 89.62 trillion yuan, an increase of 2.3 percent year on year. This marks a significant turnaround in profitability, which had been declining since May.
In August, profits of the above industrial firms recovered remarkably, rising 20.4 percent from the same period last year, compared with a 1.5 percent drop in July.
From January to August, the total profits of major state-holding enterprises achieved over 1.51 trillion yuan, down by 1.7 percent year on year. The profits of share-holding enterprises reached more than 3.49 trillion yuan, increasing by 1.1 percent. The profits of enterprises invested by foreign investors as well as enterprises from Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan reached over 1.17 trillion yuan, up by 0.9 percent year on year. Private enterprises achieved a total profit of over 1.3 trillion yuan, an increase of 3.3 percent year on year.
In the first eight months, the total profits of mining industry reached 566.11 billion yuan, down by 30.6 percent. The manufacturing industry achieved a total profit of over 3.52 trillion yuan, an increase of 7.4 percent. The total profit of the power, heat, gas and water production and supply industries reached 603.51 billion yuan, increasing by 9.4 percent year on year.
Profits of China's major industrial firms back to growth in first eight months
China will take further steps to expand high-standard opening-up and create a new landscape of win-win cooperation in 2026, which marks the start of the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030), Commerce Minister Wang Wentao said in a recent interview with China Media Group.
Wang said opening up and cooperation for mutual benefit are integral to Chinese modernization. This year, China will actively expand voluntary opening up.
The country will steadily open up such areas as value-added telecommunications, biotechnology and wholly foreign-owned hospitals, while accelerating comprehensive pilot and demonstration programs for expanded opening-up in the services sector, he noted.
"We will expand the scope and regions of unilateral opening-up and ensure the implementation of zero-tariff treatment on 100 percent of tariff lines for all African countries that have diplomatic relations with China. We will vigorously promote the effective implementation of policies for special customs operations of the Hainan Free Trade Port, further enhance the level of trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, optimize the regional layout and coverage of pilot free trade zones, and support these zones in carrying out more robust institutional opening-up trials in areas such as market access, environmental standards and government procurement, so as to better leverage their role as comprehensive pilot platforms for reform and opening-up," said Wang.
Wang said China will promote the orderly planning of cross-border industrial and supply chains.
Efforts will be made to deepen economic and trade cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative, enhance integration and connectivity across production and supply chains, and encourage cooperation in areas including green development, the digital economy, green minerals, new infrastructure and new energy so as to help build global production and supply chain partnerships that are equal, inclusive and constructive, he noted.
"We will give play to the platform role of overseas economic and trade cooperation zones, expand overseas marketing networks and explore international markets through outward investment, achieve mutual promotion between investment and trade, and advance the integrated development of trade and investment. We will also improve the overseas comprehensive service system and the national-level overseas comprehensive service platform," said the minister.
In addition, China will participate constructively in global economic governance, according to the minister.
In 2026, Wang said, China will pursue flexible and pragmatic approaches to negotiate trade and investment agreements with more willing countries and regions, while strengthening economic and trade cooperation under multilateral frameworks such as BRICS, G20 and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, to further promote mutual benefit and win-win outcomes.
China to expand high-standard opening-up to foster win-win cooperation: minister
