China's industrial profits grow 4.2% in August, slowest in nine months
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China's National Bureau of Statistics said on September 28 that profits at Chinese industrial companies rose just 4.2% year on year in August, the weakest growth rate since last November and a slowdown from the 11.2% increase in July. Industrial profits have now decelerated for four consecutive months, since a robust 24.7% surge in April, as Chinese manufacturers continue to face persistently weak consumer demand and steadily rising energy costs. In the first eight months of the year, profits at Chinese industrial companies rose 15.7%, slowing from 17.6% in the first seven months. The figures are based on a survey of industrial companies with at least 20 million yuan in annual revenue from their main business. Yu Weining, an analyst at the National Bureau of Statistics, said the slowdown in industrial profits in August was due to a high base of comparison last year, adding that the electronics industry was a key driver, contributing nearly two-thirds of overall industrial profit growth in the first eight months of the year, while raw materials producers contributed 6.2 percentage points of that growth.