Profit growth of China’s major industrial firms slowed during the first four months of 2022, weighed down by the resurgence of domestic COVID-19 cases, official data showed on Friday. Firms with annual main business revenue of at least 20m yuan (about $2.97m) saw profits grow 3.5pc year on year in the January-April period. However, profit growth was 8.5pc in the first three months, said the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). The combined profits of those firms hit nearly 2.66t yuan in the first four months, the data showed. During the period, 19 out of 41 industries saw a year-on-year expansion in their profits, however 20 industries registered declines. In the January-April period, profits of the mining industry continued to maintain rapid growth, rising 1.46 times year on year, while the manufacturing sector saw profits down 8.3pc, compared with a 2.1-percent decline registered in the first quarter. “The resurgence of COVID-19 cases and global uncertainties dragged down profits of industrial companies in April,” said Zhu Hong, a senior statistician with the NBS. “However, their performance will recover gradually as the Omicron outbreak stabilizes, factories and companies are resuming production in an orderly manner, and measures to relieve enterprises’ burdens are showing effect,” Zhu said.