BEIJING, March 27 -- China's major industrial firms experienced a decline in profits during the first two months of this year, however there are signs of recovery in sight as demand continues to improve, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed Monday.

Industrial firms with annual main business revenue of at least 20 million yuan (about 2.91 million U.S. dollars) saw their combined profits reach about 887.21 billion yuan in the period, down 22.9 percent year on year, the NBS said.

In the first two months, revenues fell, affected by yet-to-fully-recover market demand, more than costs, while factory-gate prices also dipped, resulting in the profit contraction, said NBS statistician Sun Xiao.

The combined revenues of industrial firms dropped 1.3 percent year on year to 19.3 trillion yuan, and operating costs edged down 0.2 percent, the NBS data showed.

The power production and supply sector reported a profit increase of 53.1 percent from a year earlier, driven by booming industrial manufacturing, while the mining sector saw a decline of 0.1 percent, the data showed.

Warming consumption helped consumer products firms narrow their profit decline by 13.4 percentage points from December. The tobacco industry and the liquor, tea and beverages sector saw profits grow by 9.6 percent and 2.4 percent, respectively.

Emerging sectors remained robust, with the sales of power batteries and photovoltaic equipment leading a 41.5-percent profits surge for the electric machinery sector, according to Sun.

Industrial profits will gradually rebound in the near future as the recovery of economic activities and market demand consolidate, said Sun.