China's Industrial Profits Drop for First Time Since 2015

(Bloomberg) -- The profits of Chinese industrial companies fell for the first time in almost three years, highlighting the effects of slowing economic growth, falling prices, and the trade war with the U.S.

Industrial profits declined 1.8 percent in November from a year earlier, down from a 3.6 percent rise in October. Total profits for the month were 595 billion yuan ($86 billion), the National Bureau of Statistics said Thursday.

China’s manufacturing companies are already under pressure with output growing at the slowest in a decade in November and factory inflation decelerating. If current trade talks fail, higher U.S. tariffs would further damage their prospects.

"Slowdown in sales growth and factory gate inflation, combined with rising costs, led to the decline of industrial profits in November," the NBS said in the statement on its website.

The official year-on-year growth rate for profits began diverging from the growth rate calculated from the nominal profit figures in 2017, and that continued to be an issue in November’s release. That discrepancy led some economists to question the veracity of the figures.

Profits for the first eleven months climbed 11.8 percent from a year earlier to 6.12 trillion yuan. Within sectors, mining and ferrous metals smelting had the biggest gains, while ferrous metals and non-ferrous metals smelting had the biggest drops. Manufacturing posted an 9.9 percent increase over the period, slowing from an 11.5 percent gain in the first ten months.

--With assistance from David Ingles.

To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Miao Han in Beijing at mhan22@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jeffrey Black at jblack25@bloomberg.net, James Mayger, Sharon Chen

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With assistance from Bloomberg