China's industrial profits up 22.8 pct in first nine months

BEIJING, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- China's major industrial firms posted faster profit growth in the first three quarters of this year, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Friday.

The companies reported a 22.8 percent year-on-year profit increase in the nine-month period, up from 21.6 percent in the January-August period, the NBS said in a statement.

In September alone, profits of major industrial firms rose 27.7 percent year on year, much faster than the 24-percent growth in August, it said.