China’s industrial profits rebound with 13.9% rise in March

This article is more than 12 months old

Apr 29, 2019 06:00 am

Profits at China's industrial firms grew in March, rebounding from four months of contraction, adding to optimism the world's second-largest economy may be starting to stabilise.

A return to profits could add to the debate over how much more stimulus Beijing needs to pump into the economy if it is on the mend.

Beijing and Washington appear to be edging towards a trade deal, but investors are concerned that a sharp slowdown in China will have repercussions on the wider global economy.

Profits in March rose 13.9 per cent year-on-year to 589.52 billion yuan ($87.62 billion), the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on its website on Saturday, recovering from a 14 per cent fall in the first two months.

That marked the biggest monthly increase since July last year.

For the first quarter of the year, profits notched up by industrial companies dropped 3.3 per cent to 1.3 trillion yuan compared with a year earlier, according to the NBS. - REUTERS