China's industrial profits grew by 57.3 percent year on year during the January-July period to about 4.9 trillion yuan ($756 billion), thanks to the stable recovery of the economy and improving business conditions, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on Friday.

Compared with the first seven months of 2019, the figure represented a rise of 44.6 percent. The average growth rate in the past two years stood at 20.2 percent, NBS data showed.

In July alone, China's industrial profits rose by 16.4 percent year on year, increasing by 2.3 percentage points compared to June.

The data covers companies with annual revenues of over 20 million yuan from their main operations.

During the seven months, state-owned companies realized a total profit of 158.4 billion yuan, an increase of 102 percent year on year. Joint-stock enterprises achieved a total profit of 3487.1 billion yuan, an increase of 62.4 percent year on year. Private enterprises realized a total profit of 1,426.8 billion yuan, an increase of 40.2 percent year on year.

The mining industry achieved a total profit of 481.1 billion yuan from January to July, a year-on-year increase of 145 percent. The manufacturing industry registered a total profit of 4137.5 billion yuan, an increase of 56.4 percent year on year. The electricity, heat, gas and water production and supply industries achieved a total profit of 305.4 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 5.4 percent.

Zhu Hong, a senior NBS statistician, said 60 percent of the industry's profits have witnessed positive growth, and over 70 percent of the industry's profits have exceeded the level before the COVID-19 epidemic.

Zhu also cautioned that there are still uncertainties facing the improvement of industrial enterprises' profits.

The pandemic situation has continued to evolve. Since late July, there have been outbreaks of epidemics and floods in some areas of the country, so the stable recovery of the benefits of industrial enterprises is facing challenges, Zhu said.

Meanwhile, the prices of bulk commodities are generally operating at a high level, and companies are facing pressure of rising costs, especially the small and micro enterprises.

The country will deepen the supply-side structural reforms, stabilize prices of bulk commodities, assist enterprises in handling difficulties, and strengthen technological innovation to improve the resilience of the supply chain and the industrial chain, he said.