Industrial Sector In Central China Reporting Improved Efficiency

ZHENGZHOU, July 26 (Xinhua) -- The industrial sector in central China's Henan Province has reported improvements in profits and efficiency in the first half of the year.

Industry's profits were up 143 percent over last year's corresponding period to 2.6 billion yuan, according to the provincial statistics bureau.

Deficit-ridden enterprises managed to cut losses by 20 percent on an annual basis and the state sector reported better performance, with 377 million yuan in profits in the January to June period, compared with losses of 424 million yuan for the same 1998 period.

But, in spite of these figures, a provincial official says that industrial performance allows no optimism because the record growth followed a drastic drop in industrial production last year and there are still major problems such as increased marketing costs, with some state enterprises operating in the red.