BEIJING—Profits at China’s industrial firms fell at their fastest pace in two years in April as high raw material prices and supply chain chaos caused by COVID-19 curbs squeezed margins and disrupted factory activity.
Profits shrank 8.5 percent from a year earlier, swinging from a 12.2 percent gain in March, according to Reuters’ calculations based on National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data released on Friday. The slump is the biggest since March 2020.
“In April, frequent COVID-19 outbreaks were widespread in some regions, creating big shocks to the production and operations of industrial firms and leading to a drop in their profits,” Zhu Hong, senior NBS statistician, said in a statement….