The state sector even had a 58.6-percent surge in profit which stood at 47.8 billion yuan (US$5.76 billion) for the three months under review.

NBS figures released Tuesday show that the composite index measuring the efficiency of industrial enterprises grew 9.9 points year on year to 112.1 by the end of March, following last year's remarkable improvement.

Total sales income of the industrial sector increased 16 percent to 1,925.58 billion yuan (US$232 billion) in the January-March period, with that of the state sector growing by 12.8 percent.

In the period, industrial enterprises in the country paid 131.45 billion yuan (US$15.84 billion) in taxes, of which the state sector contributed 92.31 billion yuan, up 15.8 and 12.5 percent, respectively, on an annual basis.

The lose-incurring enterprises reduced their losses by 37.71 billion yuan (US$4.54 billion), or 12.6 percent year on year, with state-owned enterprises cutting their losses by 22.9 billion yuan, or 21 percent.

Industrial enterprises sold 96.1 percent of their products in the January-March period, which was roughly the same as a year earlier. By the end of March, stockpiles rose 7.7 percent from one year ago to a total of 675.57 billion yuan (US$81.7 billion), and the growth rate was 1.8 percentage points higher than at the end of February.

Industrial enterprises also reported 1,424.27 billion yuan (US$172. 2 billion) in the total amounts receivable by the end of March, 8.1 percent more than one year ago. Of the total state-owned enterprises accounted for 816.35 billion yuan, up 3.3 percent year on year.

(Xinhua 04/24/2001)