China industrial profits in April -3.7% y/y (March was an outlier at +13.9%)

I managed to get a chance to post a bit of background to this data point earlier here:

• A very light day on the economic calendar in Asia today - some data from China

The surge in March was against a clearly weakening trend and the number for April has come back into line, a big 'give back' added in there also.

For the YTD (I.e. January to Aopril), down 3.4% y/y.

Stats Bureau in China attribute the decline in April to the VAT cut

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The profits data covers companies in China will revenues yearly above 20 million yuan from their main operations (speculating on property doesn't count as the main operation, OK?)