China’s Services Sector Continues to Rebound Faster Than Industrial Sector

China’s services sector is rebounding significantly faster than the industrial sector, based on a divergence in profitability for state-owned enterprises through the first four months of the year as reported by two government data sources.

The combined profits of major state-owned industrial companies declined 17.9% year-on-year in the first four months, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reported May 27. Over the same period, total profits of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in all sectors climbed 15.1%, the Ministry of Finance said the following day.