People read at a library in the Beicang Cultural & Creative Quarter, southwest China's Chongqing, April 22, 2021. (Xinhua/Liu Chan)

BEIJING, May 2 (Xinhua) -- China's cultural industry reported steady rebounds in the first quarter as the COVID-19 epidemic was largely subdued and the country's economy gradually regained strength, official data showed.

The combined operating revenues of major companies in the sector amounted to 2.55 trillion yuan (394.27 billion U.S. dollars) in Q1, up 40.4 percent year on year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

This figure marked a 20.9 percent increase from the 2019 level, putting the average Q1 growth for 2020 and 2021 at 10 percent, the NBS noted.

"China's cultural industry and its related sectors have basically recovered to the pre-epidemic level," said Zhang Peng, NBS senior statistician.

Among the cultural industry's sub-sectors, the revenues of creative design services and terminal cultural consumption production logged double-digit growth in the first quarter, up 45 percent and 46.2 percent respectively from a year ago, according to the NBS.