BEIJING, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- Profits of China's major industrial firms declined 2.3 percent year on year in the first nine months of the year, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed Thursday.

Industrial firms each with annual main business revenue of at least 20 million yuan (about 2.79 million U.S. dollars) saw their combined profits reach 6.24 trillion yuan in the period, the NBS said.

The combined revenues of these firms sustained growth during the period, rising 8.2 percent year on year to 100.17 trillion yuan, NBS data showed.

Highlighting the improvement in business profit structure, senior NBS statistician Zhu Hong noted that the performance of industrial firms is gaining recovery momentum as the country's pro-growth policies are taking effect.

A total of 19 out of 41 major industries saw growth in profits in the January-September period, the NBS said. The electrical machinery and equipment manufacturing sector saw profits jump 25.3 percent year on year, while the oil and gas exploitation industry saw its profits soar 112 percent.

By the end of September, the total assets of industrial firms stood at 152.64 trillion yuan, up 9.5 percent from a year earlier, the data showed.