Industrial companies face slower growth

A sudden deceleration in profit growth in August for China's industrial companies will hamper entrepreneurs' investment plans without more government-led growth stabilization projects, economists said.

Industrial profit dropped by 8.8 percent last month from a year earlier, the sharpest monthly decline since the indicator was first published in March 2012, the National Bureau of Statistics said.

In the first eight months, profits of industrial companies totaled 3.77 trillion yuan ($613 billion) - with 448.1 billion yuan made in August - down 1.9 percent compared with the first eight months of last year, the NBS showed.