Chinese industrial profits, which rose on an annual basis in April and May, dropped in June, adding to pressures on a economy that is struggling to regain momentum.
Profit at China’s industrial firms dropped 0.3 per cent in June from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Monday.
That reversed a 0.6 per cent rise in May and 2.6 per cent gain in April, the first month since September 2014 in which industrial profits were higher than a year earlier.
The bureau said falling prices pulled down firms’ profit margins in June even though recent interest rate cuts were lowering companies’ financial costs.
In June, China’s producer price index fell 4.8 per cent on an annual basis, its 39th straight month of declines, official data showed.
For the first six months of 2015, industrial profits were 0.7 per cent lower than a year earlier, the bureau said.