Profits of Beijing industrial firms dip in 2013

BEIJING -- Profits of industrial firms regulated by the Beijing municipal government dipped by 0.2 percent in 2013 from a year earlier, according to the statistics authority of Beijing on Thursday.

The data were collected from industrial companies in Beijing with annual business revenue of more than 20 million yuan ($3.3 million). The companies had aggregate profits of 125.5 billion yuan in 2013.

Performance of the firms was uneven, with state-owned firms seeing profits down by 6.8 percent year on year, joint-equity firms down by 15 percent, and foreign-funded enterprises surging by 19.4 percent, the data showed.

Profit growth of the firms also varied from sector to sector. While the automaking and pharmaceutical sectors experienced profit growth of 28.7 percent and 23.5 percent respectively, the electricity and heating sectors saw profits decrease by 1.5 percent.