CHINA'S industrial companies again saw their profit grow by a slower pace in the first three quarters of this year but a possible fine-tuning of the government's macro-economic policy may help them, analysts said.

Their net earnings rose 27 percent from a year earlier to 3.68 trillion yuan (US$575 billion) from January to September, the National Bureau of Statistics said yesterday.

The growth eased from 28.2 percent in the first eight months, 28.3 percent through July and 28.7 percent in the first half of the year.

"Rising production costs, a shrinking external demand and the previous tightening monetary policies combine to make industrial companies less profitable," said Li Maoyu, an analyst at Changjiang Securities Co.

"But a possible policy adjustment may change the moderating pace of profit growth among manufacturers,'' Li added.

Premier Wen Jiabao said on Tuesday that the government should fine-tune macroeconomic policies and maintain a reasonable credit growth to sustain an economic expansion.

His comment indicated the authorities may temporarily stop further tightening and balance liquidity for smaller firms.

On Wednesday, a senior official with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said China will launch more favorable policies for smaller companies because some of them are still struggling to survive.

Private business remained the driving force of the profit gain in the first nine months. Their profits surged an annual 44.7 percent to 1.02 trillion yuan.

Earnings of foreign-invested firms and those from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan rose 12.9 percent to 958.1 billion yuan.

The ministry is confident of China's industrial production meeting its annual target of an 11-percent growth this year, after it rose 14.2 percent in the first three quarters and 13.8 percent in September.

Source:shanghaidaily