A monthly report released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) Tuesday shows industrial enterprises reaped 291.82 billion yuan (US$35.3 billion) in total profits from January to May, 112.6 billion yuan or 62.8 percent more than the same period of last year.

The NBS said the growth in industrial profits had remained relatively high despite the slowdown in May.

An earlier NBS report showed that the top three growth industries -- automobiles, machine making and telecommunications equipment manufacturing -- had their production affected by the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) crisis in May.

However, the total sales of industrial enterprises surged 27.3 percent to 5,016 billion yuan in the first five months of the year.

(People's Daily June 25, 2003)