Profits for industrial companies in China plummeted 34.9 per cent in March compared to a year earlier, in a sign that the country’s economy has struggled to recover in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.

The gloomy figures, released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Monday, came after China reported its first contraction in economic growth since the 1970s. China’s gross domestic product shrank by 6.8 per cent in the first three months of the year.

Authorities shut down factories across China from January and continued restrictions on movements have made it difficult for workers to return to their posts. Now that the crisis has been brought under control in the country, economists worry that Covid-19 outbreaks across Europe and the US will hurt demand for China’s factory products.