China’s industrial profits fall 3.3% in 2024, third year in the red
PROFITS at China’s industrial firms fell for a third straight year in 2024, official data showed on Monday, underlining the urgency for policymakers to step up support for an economy facing tariff threats from the new Trump administration.
Industrial profits grew 11 per cent in December from the same month last year, following a 7.3 per cent drop in November, according to National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data.
For the whole year, earnings at industrial firms dropped 3.3 per cent, extending a 4.7 per cent decline in the January-November period, NBS data showed. That compares with a 2.3 per cent decline in 2023.
China’s GDP grew 5 per cent last year, reaching the official target, following extensive government stimulus measures. But the economy has been beset by a stuttering property market, flagging domestic demand and fragile business confidence.
Factory-gate prices in 2024 extended into a second straight year of declines, official data showed, ripping into corporate profits and workers’ incomes.
Policymakers in the second half of the year rolled out multiple rounds of economic stimulus measures, including expanding a consumer goods trade-in scheme to spur demand.
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December economic data, released earlier this month, indicated imbalanced growth, with industrial output outperforming retail sales, and unemployment rate ticking higher.
Exports gained momentum in December, in part fuelled by factories rushing inventory overseas as they braced for heightened trade risks under a Trump presidency.
U.S President Donald Trump, who took office on Jan 20, said the next day his administration was discussing a 10 per cent punitive duty on Chinese imports.
Profits at state-owned firms dropped 4.6 per cent in 2024, those at foreign firms fell 1.7 per cent and private-sector companies recorded a 0.5 per cent rise in earnings, according to a breakdown of the NBS data.
Industrial profit numbers cover firms with annual revenues of at least 20 million yuan (S$3.7 million) from their main operations. REUTERS
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