China's industrial profit up 12.2% in 2013

BEIJING - Chinese industrial businesses saw their profits rise 12.2 percent year on year in 2013, official data showed on Tuesday.

Total profits of industrial companies with annual revenues of more than 20 million yuan ($3.28 million) reached 6.28 trillion yuan in 2013, the National Bureau of Statistics said in a statement.

The growth rate was higher than that in 2012, but lower than that in 2011. The companies' profits rose a mere 5.3 percent in 2012, compared with the 25.4-percent surge registered in 2011.

In December 2013 alone, those companies' combined profits climbed 6 percent year on year to 942.53 billion yuan.

The monthly growth, however, was 3.7 percentage points lower than that in November.