China steel liftKevin Frayer/Getty Images
Profits at Chinese industrial firms increase by 4.2% to 502 billion yuan ($US76.6 billion) in April compared to the levels of a year earlier, according to data released by China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Friday.
The data captures the profitability of large industrial firms with annual revenues of more than 20 million yuan from their main operations. 
The figure was down on the 11.1% year-on-year gain registered in March – the quickest seen since July 2014.
China industrial profits April 2016Business Insider Australia
Between January to April, profits rose by 6.5% compared to the same period a year earlier, but that’s down on the 7.4% level seen between January to March.
The increase in profitability has coincided with a rebound in Chinese credit growth and infrastructure investment which many believe was rolled out by the government to help underpin faltering levels of economic activity seen at the start of 2016.
Earlier this week the NBS revealed the profitability of Chinese state-owned firms fell by 8.4% between January and April compared to the levels of a year earlier.
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