China's industrial profit figures released on Monday showed growth of 14 percent in April, down almost ten percentage points compared with growth in March.

That equals a profit decline of over 8.6 billion US dollars. Analysts said the lower growth was caused by the fall in the Producer's Price Index.

"The profit slip was mainly influenced by the price of pre-industrial products. I think the drop is a kind of adjustment to a previous jump. The phenomenon driven by decreasing price in raw material and manufactured products will cause stress in China's industrial area. So a further decline is possible,” said Zhang Hangyan from the Institute of Industrial Economics of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.