BEIJING — Profits of China's major industrial firms maintained sound growth momentum in the first three quarters of the year as industrial production continued to recover and business operations kept improving, official data showed on Oct 27.

Industrial firms with annual business revenues of at least 20 million yuan (about $3.1 billion) saw their combined profits jump 44.7 percent year-on-year in the January-September period to top 6.34 trillion yuan, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed.

The volume surged 41.2 percent compared with the 2019 level, putting the average January-September growth for 2020 and 2021 at 18.8 percent.

In September alone, major industrial companies raked in profits of 738.74 billion yuan, up 16.3 percent year-on-year, NBS data showed.