BEIJING, Dec. 27 -- The combined profits of China's major industrial firms increased for the fourth consecutive month in November, according to official data released Wednesday.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the profits of major industrial firms with annual main business revenue of at least 20 million yuan (about 2.82 million U.S. dollars) increased by 29.5 percent in November from the same period last year.

The equipment manufacturing sector strengthened its role as a significant growth engine last month with a robust 16.2-percent profit increase as considerable progress was achieved in modernizing the industrial chains, said NBS statistician Yu Weining.

The raw material production sector's profit decline has shrunk noticeably, contributing more to the increase of industrial profits, Yu added.

The profits of major industrial firms reached 6.98 trillion yuan in the first 11 months of the year, down 4.4 percent year on year, with the rate of decline narrowing by 3.4 percentage points from the first 10 months.