Profit growth at China��s industrial companies continued to moderate in December, another reflection of the economic slowdown as the country tries to accelerate reforms.

Industrial profit expanded 6 percent from a year earlier to 942.5 billion yuan (US$155.7 billion) last month,[Offshore Company Incorporation] down from the 9.7 percent rate in November, the National Bureau of Statistics said yesterday.

China��s manufacturers reported a combined profit of 6.28 trillion yuan in 2013, up 12.2 percent on an annual basis.

He Ping, a bureau researcher, said the recent moderations were out of a high comparative base a year earlier, along with weak demand at home and abroad and falling prices of some products.

But China��s manufacturing sector delivered a good performance last year as a whole, with its profit growth rate picking up from 2012��s 5.3 percent, He said.

Profit growth was mainly bolstered by five sectors, the bureau said �� power generation, automobiles, petroleum, ferrous metal smelting and non-metallic mineral products. Profits in these five industries accounted for 55.3 percent of the increase in total industrial profits.

China��s gross domestic product expanded 7.7 percent from a year earlier in the fourth quarter of last year, [HongKong Richful  - Hong Kong Company Formation, Offshore Company Incorporation]easing from 7.8 percent in the third quarter.

An HSBC preliminary survey last week showed that China��s manufacturing activity may contract for the first time in six months in January.

The HSBC Flash China Manufacturing Purchasing Managers�� Index, the earliest available indicator of China��s industrial sector��s vitality, dropped to 49.6 from December��s final reading of 50.5 due to sluggish production growth and rising unemployment.

Zhang Zhiwei, an economist at Nomura, said recent data had painted a picture of a downtrend, with moderations in nearly all fronts from industrial production and fixed-asset investment to retail sales.

But Zhang said the government was unlikely to relax monetary policies anytime soon as growth remained at a comfortable level.

Slowing growth is a byproduct of China��s deepening reforms in economic restructuring, and it was good for China to address problems such as overcapacity and low investment efficiency, analysts said.

The World Bank earlier lowered its expectation of China��s 2014 economic growth to 7.7 percent from the previous 8 percent, reflecting deleveraging and less reliance on policy-induced investment.

China is to forge ahead with reforms this year while maintaining stable economic growth by sticking to a proactive fiscal policy and a prudent monetary policy, the government decided at last month��s Central Economic Work Conference.