Industrial profits fall 8% in December as annual profit growth slows

China’s industrial profits for December fell 8% year on year while profits for the full year rose 3.3%, their slowest rate since local manufacturers were hit by the global financial crisis in 2008, The Financial Times reported, citing data released Tuesday by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. While falling prices for oil and other inputs have supported profit margins, that has been offset by falling prices for finished goods, He Ping, a statistician at the ministry’s industrial department, said in a statement accompanying the data.