Beijing, Apr 27 (IANS): Profits of China's leading industrial businesses dropped 36.7 per cent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2020 due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, official data revealed on Monday.

The data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) revealed that the profits in the first quarter of the year were placed at 781.45 billion yuan ($110.43 billion), reports Efe news.

The marker recorded a 38.3 per cent year-on-year fall in the months of January and February, while the slump in March stood at 34.9 per cent, according to NBS.

Before the suspension of the activities due to the pandemic, the industrial profits had shown a 6.3 per cent year-on-year decline in December with a total drop of 3.3 per cent in 2019.

Of the 41 sectors listed by the NBS, 39 recorded a slump in their profits in the first quarter of 2020 while the remaining experienced an increase.

Likewise, the gains of state-run firms declined 45.5 per cent during this period, while that private entities slumped 29.5 per cent.

Most affected firms included those of oil, coal and other fuel industries (-187 per cent), machine and equipment repair industries (-84.3 per cent), automation (-80.2 per cent), chemical industry (-56.5 per cent), textile (38.8 per cent), food manufacturing (27.4 per cent) and pharmaceutical industries (-15.7 per cent).

At the other extreme, tobacco and agricultural and processed food industries recorded gains of 28.5 per cent and 11.2 per cent, respectively.

NBS expert Zhang Weihua said that resumption in production was accelerating and corporate profits have been showing some positive changes given that 28 of the 41 companies analyzed in March showed improvement in their figures as compared to that of the first two Months of 2020.

The data released on Monday is one of the economic indicators - along with international trade and production, among others - that show the significant impact of the pandemic on the figures of the Asian country.