Chinese industrial companies’ profits plummeted in the first four months of 2023. This is according to official data published on Saturday in China were published. According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), January-April earnings fell 20.6 percent from the same period last year, compared with a 21.4 percent decline in the first three months.
In April alone, industrial firms saw profits fall 18.2 percent year-on-year, according to the NBS, which only occasionally releases monthly figures. In March, profits shrank by 19.2 percent.
“Overall, today’s data shows that industrial companies, particularly private and equity-owned companies, continue to be impacted by a combination of unfavorable factors such as the base effect, near-term pressure on the economic recovery and the downward trend in PPI (producer prices),” said Bruce Pang , Chief Economist at Jones Lang Lasalle.
Lenovo fires almost every tenth employee
Lenovo, the world’s largest personal computer maker, said this week that quarterly sales and profits slumped in January and March and the company laid off nearly 9 percent of its workforce.
Foreign companies saw profits fall 16.2 percent year-on-year from January to April, while private companies suffered a 22.5 percent slump, the data showed. Profits fell in 27 out of 41 major industrial sectors during the period, with the iron and steel industry posting the biggest drop at 99.4 percent.
Earlier this month, Premier Li Qiang pledged more targeted policies to boost domestic demand and stabilize overseas demand to promote sustained economic recovery.