A worker stands next to machinery in the mineral selection shop at the Dongguashan Copper Mine, operated by Tongling Nonferrous Metals Group Co., in Tongling, Anhui province, China. (Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg)
China’s April Industrial Profits Fall as Trade Standoff Worsens
(Bloomberg) -- The profits of China’s industrial companies fell in April even before President Donald Trump raised additional tariffs on imports from China, underscoring the fragility of the world’s second-largest economy.
Key Insights
- The drop in profits was mainly due to the comparison to high profits a year ago and also to companies trying to take advantage of a tax change on April 1, the NBS said. Companies bought industrial goods in March ahead of the tax cut and then cut back on purchases in April, lowering profits
- State-owned enterprises’ profits fell 9.7% in the first four months of 2019, while private businesses’ profits increased 4.1% during the same period
- At the end of April, the corporate debt-to-asset ratio dropped by 0.5 percentage points to 56.8% compared with a year ago. The debt ratio of SOEs decreased by 1.1 percentage points to 58.4%
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