China Industrial Profits Increase at Slowest Pace in a Year
- Increase slumped to 2.3% in December from 14.5% in November
- Full-year earnings climbed 8.5% to 6.88 trillion yuan
A worker operates a sewing machine during the production of inflatable chickens, bearing a likeness to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and produced ahead of the Lunar New Year of the Rooster, at a Caile Inflatables Products Co. factory in Jiaxing, China, on Thursday, Jan. 12, 2017. China's state media rebuffed a suggestion by Trump's nominee for secretary of state that Beijing must be denied access to reclaimed reefs in the disputed waters of the South China Sea.
Photographer: Qilai Shen/BloombergProfit growth at industrial firms in China rose at the slowest pace in a year even as prices surged, underscoring how weaker demand threatens to weigh on the economic expansion.
Industrial profits rose 2.3 percent in December from a year earlier to 844.4 billion yuan ($123 billion), down from a 14.5 percent increase in November, the statistics bureau said. Full-year earnings climbed 8.5 percent to 6.88 trillion yuan, reversing a 2.3 percent decline in 2015.