The profits of Chinese industrial companies fell for the second straight month, official data showed, in the latest sign of further cooling in the world’s second-largest economy.
Profits of big industrial companies fell 1.9% on year to 680.83 billion yuan ($100.94 billion) in December, said the National Bureau of Statistics on Monday. Profits of chemical, coal mining and non-ferrous metal sectors all slowed significantly in December, the data showed.
In November, industrial profits declined 1.8% from a year earlier. It was the first contraction in profits in nearly three years.
For the full year of 2018, China's industrial profit rose 10.3% to 6.64 trillion yuan ($986.37 billion), easing from 2017's 21%.
At the end of December, the debt-to-assets ratio of Chinese industrial companies stood at 56.5%, down 0.5% from a year ago.
The Shanghai Composite and the Shenzhen Component traded about 0.2% lower on Monday following the release of the data.
China reported its weakest annual economic growth in 28 years earlier this month. The country’s GDP grew 6.4% in the fourth quarter of 2018 from a year earlier, official data showed on January 20.
