China’s Industrial Profits Slump on Soft Demand, Deflation

(Bloomberg) — Profits at industrial firms in China kept dropping in May, reflecting the impact of soft demand and ongoing factory-gate deflation.

Profits in May were down 12.6% from a year earlier, data published by the National Bureau of Statistics showed Wednesday. For the January-to-May period, profits declined 18.8%, which was somewhat slower than the almost 21% drop in the first four months of 2023.