Profits by China’s industrial firms continue decline in August

Beijing, China (4E) – Official data released on Thursday shows that major Chinese industrial companies continue to see their profits fall for the month of August due to sluggish demand from domestic and overseas markets.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reported that profits of major industrial companies fell 6.2 per cent in August year on year to 381.2bn yuan, declining for the fifth consecutive month.

Economists are closely watching the erosion in earnings of China’s large companies as there are concerns of massive job losses that could result from further declines.

The 3.1 per cent fall in profits to 3.060 trillion yuan from January through August this year continued the declining pace of 2.7 per cent seen in the January to July period.

The data measured earnings by industrial companies with annual income of no less than 20mn yuan. The statistics bureau began using this standard in 2011, which is higher than the previous threshold of 5mn yuan.

Profits of state-owned companies fell 12.7 per cent from January to August year on year, while earnings of private firms rose by 15.1 per cent.

Foreign-funded firms as well as those based in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau saw their profits fall by 12.7 per cent in the first eight months year on year to 703.4bn yuan.

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