China's first quarter 2003 compound index of industrial performance reached 134.8, up 20.7 points year-on-year, according to a report released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) Thursday.

Net industrial profits nearly doubled in the first quarter, with a total volume of 159.11 billion yuan (US$19.17 billion), an increase of 94.3 percent over the same period of last year. The profit increase of state-owned and state-held enterprises for the first quarter of 2003 was 2.6 times that of the first quarter of 2002.

During the first quarter, 35 of the 39 industrial sectors made more profit than they did in the same period in 2002. The oil and natural gas exploitation industry raked in profits of 36.51 billion yuan (US$4.4 billion), an increase of 190 percent year-on-year and accounting for about one-third of the total increase in industrial profit.

Following the strong profit performance of the oil and natural gas exploitation industry were the oil processing, the coke refining and nuclear fuel processing, the chemical material and chemical products manufacturing, the transportation equipment manufacturing and the nonferrous smelting and pressing industries.

Sales revenue from industrial goods grew rapidly in the first quarter, totaling 2,815.81 billion yuan (US$339.25 billion), up 30.2 percent year-on-year and 19.5 percentage points more than that of the same period last year.

Tax revenue grew by 19.7 percent, 11.3 percentage points more than in the first quarter of 2002.

(Xinhua News Agency April 25, 2003)