China’s Industrial Profits Slide as Demand Weakens

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A worker sits inside a control booth at the Jinguan Copper smelter, operated by Tongling Nonferrous Metals Group, in Tongling, East China’s Anhui province, in January 2019. Photo: Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) — Profits at industrial firms in China kept falling in the first four months of the year, underlining cooling demand and deepening factory-gate deflation in the world’s second-largest economy.

Industrial profits fell 20.6% in the January-April period from the same time frame in 2022, data published Saturday by the National Bureau of Statistics showed. The drop was slower than a decline of 21.4% logged in the first quarter.