Combined pre-tax earnings at medium and large enterprises soared 37.6 percent in January-February 2011 to 1.262 trillion rubles ($45 billion), from 916.7 billion rubles in the same period of last year, the State Statistics Service said.
Some 34,500 companies made a combined 1.518 trillion rubles in profit, while 20,200 others incurred losses totaling 256 billion rubles.
Companies working in the natural resources sector had combined profits rising 90.6 percent in January-February to 291.8 billion rubles. The utilities sector made 98.3 billion rubles, down 26.3 percent, and the manufacturing sector 309.4 billion rubles, up 66.4 percent from a year previously.
Combined profits rose 39 percent to 358.9 billion rubles in wholesale and retail trade and services; were up 0.2 percent to 162.6 billion rubles in transport and communications; 22.6 percent to 4 billion rubles in construction; 130 percent to 20.2 billion rubles in real estate; and 26.2 percent to 2.8 billion rubles in fisheries.
The share of Russian enterprises that incurred losses was down 0.9 percentage point compared with January-February last year, at 36.9 percent.