Profits at China's industrial firms contracted in August, reversing the previous month's brief gain, as weak domestic demand and the trade war with the United States weighed on corporate balance sheets.

Industrial profits fell 2% in August from a year earlier to 517.8 billion yuan, data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed. That compared with a 2.6% gain in July.

Profits have slowed since the second half of 2018, despite some transitory rebounds, with falling factory-gate prices threatening to further knock profits as economic growth skidded to a near 30-year low. As a result, policymakers are widely expected to unveil more support measures to boost a slowing economy amid sluggish consumption, rising export pressure and faltering domestic demand.

The decline in profits was in line with grim manufacturing readings in August with industrial production growth falling to its weakest in 17-1/2 years while exports also tumbled.

For January-August, industrial firms earned profits of 4.02 trillion yuan, down 1.7% year-on-year, the same as the reading in the first seven months.