BEIJING, Aug 27 (Reuters) – Profits at China’s industrial firms grew at a slower rate of 16.4% on year to 703.67 billion yuan ($108.6 billion) in July, the statistics bureau said on Friday, as elevated commodity prices and supply chain constraints from extreme weather weighed on the sector.
The July growth rate compared with a 20% gain in the previous month. The pace of growth has been slowing for five consecutive months.
For the January-July period, industrial firms’ profits rose 57.3% year-on-year to 4.92 trillion yuan, slowing from a 66.9% increase in the first half of 2021.
Liabilities at industrial firms rose 8.2% on an annual basis at end-July, down from 8.5% growth as of end-June.
The industrial profit data covers large firms with annual revenues of over 20 million yuan from their main operations.
$1 = 6.4809 Chinese yuan Reporting by Colin Qian, Stella Qiu and Ryan Woo; Editing by Jacqueline Wong