News and Events

Chinese industry profits decline in April

Chinese industrial companies’ profit growth fell in April 2012.

China’s National Bureau of Statistics said that earnings declined by 2.2% YoY to CNY 407.6 billion as compared with a 4.5% YoY gain in March.

Industrial profit for the first four months fell 1.6% YoY to CNY 1.45 trillion. That compared with a 1.3% drop in the first quarter. Sales in the period rose 12.7% YoY to CNY 27 trillion.

Recent data from China Iron and Steel Association has show that steelmakers in China had combined losses of more than CNY 1 billion in the first quarter.

The deceleration in corporate profit growth underscores concerns that the slowdown in the world’s second biggest economy is deepening. China’s State Council said on May 23 that downside risks to growth are increasing and the government will intensify fine tuning policies as needed, signaling it may take more aggressive steps to support the nation’s expansion.

China’s industrial profit data cover companies in 41 industries. Starting last year, the statistics bureau raised the minimum annual sales for businesses included in the survey to CNY 20 million from CNY 5 million.