BEIJING (Reuters) – Profits at China’s industrial companies fell faster-than-expected between January and September.
Nine-month profits fell 2.3 percent year-on-year, after falling 2.1 percent in the January-August period, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released on Thursday. The bureau did not release separate figures for September and August, but said in a separate statement that the decline in profits at industrial companies in September narrowed 6.0 percentage points from the previous month.
Last month, China’s industrial production rose 6.3 percent year on year, beating expectations of 4.5 percent. After nearly collapsing in the spring, the Chinese economy grew faster than expected in the third quarter thanks to a series of government measures. Economic data for September showed solid industrial production, but ongoing housing woes, slower exports and persistently weak retail sales are clouding prospects for a strong recovery in the next quarter. Despite growth in the third quarter, analysts at Goldman Sachs lowered their growth forecast for China for the fourth quarter to 3.5 percent from a previous 5.0 percent.
(Report by Liangping Gao, Ella Cao and Ryan Woo, written by Alexandra Falk. If you have any questions, please contact our editorial team at [email protected] (for politics and economics) or [email protected] (for companies and markets).)