China’s industrial profits fall most since 2011

Chinese industrial companies’ profits fell the most in at least three years last month, underscoring the challenge facing the nation’s former growth drivers as the economy slows and commodity prices slump.

Industrial profits declined 8 percent in December from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said in Beijing on Tuesday. That’s the biggest drop since at least October 2011, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

China’s old growth drivers are faltering, weighed by overcapacity and a property downturn. Services companies are faring better, bolstering an economy that expanded at the slowest pace in 24 years in 2014.

“The upstream industries, from mining to oil exploration, are hurting badly from falling input prices, while some manufacturers are benefiting,” said Ding Shuang, a senior China economist with Citigroup Inc. in Hong Kong. “A deeper fall in industrial profits will damp investment activity to weigh on future growth.” (Bloomberg)