 "China, China Markets, Chinese Financial Markets")
China's industrial firms saw December profits grow at their slowest pace in more than a year and a half, pointing to cooling demand amid mounting economic challenges for the world's second-largest economy.
The downbeat data adds to expectations of strong supportive measures from the People's Bank of China in the coming months to stabilise a faltering economy. Covid-19 outbreaks have hit consumer spending, a property market downturn is deepening and exports look set to slow.
Hobbled by an easing in factory-gate inflation, industrial profits rose 4.2% year-on-year, the slowest rate since April 2020, according to the National Bureau of Statistics
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