China's industrial firms saw profit growth slow to 5 percent in the first two months of 2022, pressured by higher costs and weaker sales, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on Sunday. 

Zhu Hong, a senior NBS statistician, said the profit growth rate of industrial enterprises was significantly lower than last year's 178.9 percent in the same period due to a high base effect. 

China's major industrial enterprises achieved a total profit of 1,157.56 billion yuan ($182 billion) during the January-February period in 2022. 

Zhu said industrial profit has continued the recovery trend since last year, but cautioned the cost pressures facing enterprises have increased, as the profit margin and the sales have declined.

"The improvement of corporate profits is still uneven, and the profit growth of downstream industries, especially small, medium and micro enterprises is slow," she said.

As these companies are still facing difficulties and challenges, Zhu said the NBS will continue ensuring the supply of bulk commodities at stable prices to reduce the production costs of enterprises, while implementing supportive policies for the manufacturing industry, such as tax and fee reduction policies for small and micro enterprises.