OREANDA-NEWS. Industrial firms in East China's Anhui province reaped a profit of 11.3 billion yuan (USD 1.8 billion) in March, up 6 percent year-on-year, official statistics showed.

The rise was 0.7 percentage points higher than the national average, speeding up from the Jan-Feb figure which was 12 percentage points lower than the national average, the provincial bureau of statistics said.

In breakdown, joint-stock companies saw profits up 17.2 percent from the same period last year. Large enterprises slowed down the profit drop, while the heavy industry's profits rebounded. 24 out of 39 industries reported increases in profits.

The coal industry announced losses of 260 million yuan in March, compared with 790 million yuan in profit a year ago. Such a dramatic plunge brought industrial businesses' combined profits down by 11.1 percentage points.