BEIJING — Profits of China's major industrial firms maintained steady growth momentum in the first eight months of the year as industrial production continued to firm up and business operations kept improving, official data showed on Sept 28.

Industrial firms with annual business revenues of at least 20 million yuan (about $3.1 million) saw their combined profits surging 49.5 percent year-on-year in the January-August period to 5.6 trillion yuan, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed.

The volume jumped 42.9 percent compared with the 2019 level, putting the average January-August growth for 2020 and 2021 at 19.5 percent.

In August alone, major industrial companies raked in profits of 680.28 billion yuan, up 10.1 percent year-on-year, NBS data showed.