China's industrial profits slide as demand weakens

Profits at industrial firms in China kept falling in the first four months of 2023, underlining cooling demand and deepening factory-gate deflation in the world's second-largest economy.

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Industrial profits fell 20.6 per cent in the January-to-April period from the same timeframe in 2022, data published on Saturday by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed. The drop was slower than a decline of 21.4 per cent logged in the first quarter.

Profits for the single month of April were down 18.2 per cent from a year earlier, according to NBS figures, compared with March's decline of 19.2 per cent.