By Huang Wanyi and Xu Jiangshan
Between January and February, China’s fixed-asset investment (excluding agricultural investment) totalled 3.33 trillion yuan ($476 billion) – down 24.5% from the same period last year.
Private fixed-asset investment fell even more – by 26.4% to 1.89 trillion yuan during the same period, when many provinces, such as Hubei, were hit hard by the coronavirus outbreak, which forced the government to lockdown cities such as Wuhan to prevent the disease from spreading.
In February, China’s fixed asset investment dropped by 27.4% from January, but that figure did not include agricultural investment.
Annual reports
Meanwhile, a total of 116 A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen have released their annual reports for 2019, while another 1,765 companies have disclosed their 2019 performance results.
The total net profit of all these 1,881 companies rose more than 20% year-on-year in 2019. In addition, 55 companies estimated their first-quarter results, and 70% of them expect to record profit growth.
Due to the so-called “stay-at-home economy” and new infrastructure projects, many companies saw a sharp increase in their first-quarter results. The situation was better than expected.
JD.com chairman
In other news, Richard Liu Qiangdong, chairman of JD.com Group, recently stepped down as general manager of the Group’s 18 units – 16 of which are logistics companies. According to Tianyancha.com. Liu Qiangdong has stepped down from 29 firms this year.
And on Friday March 13, Li Ning (China) Sporting Goods Co Ltd announced it will expand its business scope to sales of Class I and II medical devices, as well as football, volleyball and tennis training and psychological counselling.
Between January 1 and February 27, more than 10,000 Chinese companies expanded their business to sales of masks, protective clothing, disinfectant, medical devices and thermometers.
The story was first published at ATimesCN.com.
