China's second-largest telecommunications equipment maker -- ZTE Corp. -- saw its net profit for the first half of 2012 plunge 68.17 percent year-on-year to 245 million yuan (38.67 million U.S. dollars).

The global economic downturn and fluctuations in exchange rates were the reasons for the drop, ZTE said on Wednesday, in a statement filed with the Hong Kong and Shenzhen stock exchanges.

Operating revenues for the Hong Kong- and Shenzhen-listed company increased 15.21 percent from a year earlier to reach 42.64 billion yuan, the company said.

Earnings per share stood at 0.07 yuan in the first six months of 2012.

ZTE's bleak results underlined weak growth in the telecommunications sector.

Last month, China's largest telecommunications equipment maker Huawei reported an increase of just 5.1 percent in sales revenues, with an operating profit of 8.79 billion yuan in the first half of this year.

The share price of ZTE slid 0.17 percent to close at 11.32 HK dollars in Hong Kong, on Wednesday, and dipped 0.53 percent to 11.2 yuan in Shenzhen.