China's industrial enterprises reported a 2.6% annual rise in profits in July, rebounding from a 3.1% fall in June, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported, citing data from the National Bureau of Statistics.
Profits for the first seven months of 2019 dropped 1.7% year over year to 3.50 trillion Chinese yuan, compared with an annual 2.4% decline in the first half.
"The negative impact of the trade war was masked by supportive fiscal stimulus in the form of railway construction," said Iris Pang, ING economist for Greater China, in a note. "Trade-related sectors continued to suffer from shrinking profits."
State-owned industrial firms' profits dropped 8.1% on an annual basis to 1.08 billion yuan during the January-July period, while private companies saw income rise 7% to 884.91 billion yuan over the same period, Xinhua said. Profits of the mining industry rose 4.2% to 335.44 billion yuan, while those of the manufacturing industry fell 3.4% to 2.88 trillion yuan.
As of August 26, US$1 was equivalent to 7.15 Chinese yuan.
