Profits of Chinese industrial businesses hit 676.12 billion yuan (110.84 billion U.S. dollars) in November, down 4.2 percent year on year, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Saturday.

Profits dropped 2.1 percent in October, rose 0.4 percent in September, decreased 0.6 percent in August and gained 13.5 percent in July year on year.

NBS statistician He Ping attributed the decrease to lackluster sales of industrial products and slumping prices of industrial products.

Despite the decrease, the industrial sector continues to modernize, with better performance in equipment manufacturing and high-tech manufacturing, but a slowdown areas such as raw material production, he said. ' The total profits of industrial companies during the January-November period was 5.62 trillion yuan, up 5.3 percent year on year. However, growth decelerated by 1.4 percentage points from the January-October period.

During the first 11 months of the year, 33 of the 41 sectors surveyed reported year on year profit increases, with eight sectors seeing drops. Coal mining profits declined 44.4 percent year on year.

Private firms saw relatively stable profit growth at 7.2 percent and profits of state-owned enterprises dropped 3.5 percent year on year in the first 11 months.

Companies funded with overseas investment posted the strongest growth in profits during the January-November period, with an increase of 10.3 percent year on year.

NBS's calculations include companies with annual business revenues exceeding 20 million yuan.

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