Profit at Chinese State cos rises with virus recovery

Beijing: Profit at State-owned companies that dominate China's banking, oil and most other industries rose by as much as 25 per cent last year as the country recovered from the coronavirus pandemic, the government said on Tuesday. Total revenue for national-level companies rose 2.2 per cent over 2019 to 30.3 trillion yuan ($4.7 trillion), according to Peng Huagang, Secretary General of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission.

Peng said profit rose 2.1 per cent to 1.4 trillion yuan ($215 billion). The ruling Communist Party has built up such "national champions" over the past two decades, but their monopolies and multibillion-dollar subsidies prompt complaints by the public that they are a waste of money and gouge consumers with high prices. Peng's agency oversees 97 companies directly under the Cabinet including PetroChina Limited, Asia's biggest oil producer; China Mobile Limited, the world's biggest phone carrier by number of subscribers, and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Limited, the world's biggest bank by assets.

SASAC companies also dominate air travel, insurance, securities, shipping, internet access, power generation, construction, nuclear power technology and coal and steel production. Chinese industries benefited from the economy's relatively early reopening starting in March after the ruling party declared victory over the virus that emerged in the central city of Wuhan in late 2019. Total economic activity rose 2.3 per cent in 2020, possibly making China the only major economy to grow, while the US, Europe and Japan struggled with rising infections. Growth accelerated to a two-year high of 6.5 per cent over a year earlier in the three months ending in December. (AP)