China industrial companies post strong growth in first four months

BEIJING - China's major industrial firms posted double-digit growth in profits in the first four months of this year, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Saturday.

The companies reported a 24.4-percent profit increase in the four-month period from one year earlier, the NBS said in a statement.

In April alone, profits of major industrial firms rose 14 percent year on year, it said.