Data from the National Bureau of Statistics said profits fell 20.6% from January to April compared to the same period last year, and fell 21.4% in the first three months.
In April alone, corporate profits in the industrial sector fell 18.2% year-on-year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, which sometimes only provides monthly data. Profits fell 19.2% in March.
Chinese companies are suffering from weak domestic demand and in the country’s key export markets.
Lenovo, the world’s largest PC maker, said this week that quarterly revenue and profit fell between January and March, and that the company cut its workforce by 8-9% to cut costs, as the Global PC demand continued to slump.
Foreign companies reported a 16.2% drop in profits from January to April compared to the same period last year, while profits of private sector companies fell 22.5%, the data showed. .
The dismal earnings figures came after a series of economic indicators for April, which includes industrial production, retail sales and real estate investment, suggested that the recovery in the world’s second-largest economy is running out of steam.
The industrial profit data covers companies with annual revenue of at least 20 million yuan ($2.89 million) from their core businesses.
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