China's industrial profits suffer first year-on-year fall in almost three years

Profits at China's industrial firms fell 1.8 percent to 594.8 billion yuan ($86.36 billion) in November from a year earlier, the first contraction since December 2015, and compared with a 3.6 percent gain in October, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday.
In the first eleven months of 2018, industrial profits rose 11.8 percent year-on-year, slower than a 13.6 percent rise in the first ten months. China's industrial firms' liabilities increased 5.8 percent from a year earlier as of end-November, down from a 5.9 percent rise from the end of October. China's economy has been facing increasing downward pressure this year as a trade dispute with the United States, slowing global growth and a years-long deleveraging campaign hit demand.