China's industrial profit growth cools in July

Beijing

EARNINGS growth for China's industrial firms cooled in July after accelerating for three straight months, reinforcing expectations the economy will slow over coming quarters as higher lending costs and property market curbs bite.

Profits earned by China's industrial companies in July rose 16.5 per cent from a year earlier to 612.7 billion yuan (S$126 billion), slower than the previous month, the statistics bureau said on Sunday.

That was the slo…