PROFIT growth at firms directly owned by China’s Central Government slowed to the low single digits in the second quarter of the year, hit by a cooling economy and sputtering global trade.

Overall profits grew 1.92 percent in the April-June period from a year earlier, sharply decelerating from a 13.1 percent gain in the first quarter, according to media calculations based on first-half data released by the State assets regulator Tuesday.

To bankroll tax cuts and support fiscal revenue, the government has said it will collect more profits from some State-owned financial institutions and centrally-owned firms.

In the first half of 2019, total profits at centrally-owned enterprises rose 6.7 percent to 947.05 billion yuan (US$138 billion), the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) told a news conference.

That was markedly softer than the January-June period in 2018, when profits increased 23 percent.

The profit gain in the first half of this year was still in a reasonable range and within expectations, said SASAC General Secretary Peng Huagang.

The slowdown was due to a large statistical base in the first half of 2018, Peng said, adding that earnings also eased this year because of fee cuts by State telecom firms and electricity suppliers.

Cooling global trade and domestic pressures also tapped the brakes on profit growth, Peng told reporters.(SD-Agencies)