BEIJING, March 23 (Xinhuanet) -- China's industrial firms recorded143.79 billion yuan (17.5 billion US dollars) in profits in the first two months of this year, up 38.2 percent from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics reported Tuesday.

    The statistics covered industrial enterprises each with an annual output value of at least 5 million yuan. The growth rate is similar to that recorded for the last month of 2003, according to the bureau.

    The bureau said 34 out of the country's 39 major categories of industrial sectors recorded positive growth in profits.

    The five most profitable sectors were: black metal mining, non-metal mineral products, energy, black metal smelting, and coalmining.

    The five sectors reported a total of 23.89 billion yuan (2.9 billion US dollars) in added profits, accounting for 60 percent of the whole industrial sector, according to the bureau.

    The country's industrial firms paid a total of 132.1 billion yuan (16.1 billion US dollars) in taxes, up 21.3 percent year-on-year during January and February, two percentage points more than the same period of last year.

    The firms generated a combined sales volume of 2.3257 trillion yuan (284.6 billion US dollars) during the two months, up 28.6 percent. Enditem