China October industrial profits fall for fifth straight month

Beijing

PROFITS earned by Chinese industrial companies fell 4.6 per cent in October from a year earlier, data from the statistics bureau showed on Friday, declining for the fifth consecutive month.

Industrial profits - which cover large enterprises with annual revenue of more than 20 million yuan (S$4.4 million) from their main operations - fell 2.0 per cent in the first 10 months of the year compared with the same period a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on its website.