China’s measures to cool the economy may not have a large and immediate impact because of the increasing role of profits in funding investment, the main driver of the country’s double-digit growth this year, according to the World Bank.

The bank, in its quarterly report on Chinese economy, said total profits of both the state and private sectors had grown by 28 per cent in the first half of 2006, year-on-year, nine points higher than for the same period in 2005.