China industrial profits fall as lockdown pain spreads

China’s industrial groups posted their worst decline in profits in two years in April, in the latest sign of the economic and corporate pain stemming from a wave of coronavirus lockdowns.

Industrial profits dropped 8.5 per cent in April compared with the same period a year earlier, the measure’s worst fall since March 2020, when China was also gripped by restrictions to combat the initial outbreak of the virus.

The contraction piles…