China’s industry reports first profit decline in 4 years

China’s industry reports first profit decline in 4 years

China’s industrial firms on Monday posted their first annual decline in profits in four years in 2019. The decline has been attributed to the country’s slowest economic growth in almost 30 years and the prolonged trade war it had with the United States.

Official data showed profits had been declining by 3.3% on an annual basis to 6.1996 trillion Yuan ($897.96 billion) in 2019 in contrast to the 2.1% dip in the January-November period.

The industrial data comes from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on its website.

The figures however, come before the significant impact of China’s coronavirus outbreak seen in January. This has led many economists to expect a sharper decline in the first half of 2020.

According to analysts, the virus, which has infected more than 17,000 people and caused over 300 deaths in China, is said to potentially drag China’s economy to 5% or lower in its first quarter run.