Industrial profit growth in China eased visibly in September as sales softened and the basis for comparison became less favourable.

Industrial profits at large firms in China grew 7.7 per cent year-on-year in September according to the National Bureau of Statistics, down from 19.5 per cent in August when they hit their highest level since September 2013. The data put year-on-year industrial profit growth for the first nine months of the year at 8.4 per cent, holding steady from the previous month’s reading.

The statistics bureau pointed to a decline of 0.8 per cent in existing stocks and a lowering by 0.6 per cent of leverage among companies as evidence of further improvement, though it noted as well that production and sales had grown more slowly than the month prior.