Profit growth for China's industrial firms eased in June from the previous month, data showed on Friday, as factory production slowed amid the worsening trade US dispute and Beijing's efforts to cut pollution and debt.
Industrial profits rose 20 percent to 658.29 billion yuan ($96.69 billion) in June, according to data published by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Friday, compared with a 21.1 percent rise in May.
NBS said in a separate statement on the data rising prices have cushioned firms' profits even as industrial production slowed in June. It did not provide separate reasons for the slower profit growth in the month.
Steel, building materials and oil extraction sectors were key drivers behind profit growth in the first half of the year, it added. But profit growth in textile, non-ferrous metal smelting and processing, and telecommunications and electronic equipment manufacturing profits fell during the same period from a year earlier.
For the first half of the year, industrial firms' profit grew 17.2 percent from a year earlier to 3.39 trillion yuan, accelerating from a 16.5 percent rise for January-May.