China industrial profits rise for fourth month

Profits in China's industrial sector rose for the fourth month running in August as factories continued to recover from the Covid-19 shutdown.

Total profits at industrial businesses above a certain size rose 19.1% to 612.81bn yuan (£70bn) from a year earlier, China's statistics bureau said. Growth was broadly in line with the 19.6% increase in July and was the fourth-straight month of recovery from the closure of the economy during the coronavirus crisis.

Total industrial profits in the first eight months of 2020 were 4.4% lower than in the same period of 2019 at 3.72trn yuan. The rate of decrease was 3.7 percentage points lower than in July.

China's economic recovery has been gathering pace as demand suppressed during lockdown, government support and resilient exports have fuelled growth. The country's industrial sector still faces potential pressures from US-China trade tensions and rising Covid-19 infections in some large export markets.