China's major industrial firms saw stronger profit growth in the first ten months of this year, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Monday.

The companies reported a 23.3 percent year-on-year profit increase between January and October, up from 22.8 percent in the first three quarters, the NBS said in a statement.

In October alone, profits of major industrial firms rose 25.1 percent year on year, it said.

In October, profits rose to 745.4 billion yuan (112.94 billion US dollars), a drop of 2.6 percentage points from the 27.7 percent gain in September, but still among the high growth months this year, He Ping, a senior analyst at NBS said on its website.

From January to October, the total profits of industrial enterprises with annual sales of over 5 million yuan reached 6242.5 billion yuan (945.26 billion US dollars), up 23.3 percent from the same period last year, an acceleration of 0.5 percentage points from the 22.8 percent increase from January to September.

Unprofitable enterprises are decreasing as well. From January to October, the number of unprofitable firms declined by 1.6 percent year-on-year among the industrial enterprises with annual sales of over five million yuan and the total loss amount dropped by 18.1 percent year-on-year.

He Ping pointed out that as corporate leverage decreased, so too did business risk. By the end of October, the asset-liability ratio of industrial enterprises with more than five million yuan in sales was 55.7 percent, down 0.5 percentage point from the same period of last year.

High-tech manufacturing and industrial strategic new industries have maintained rapid growth. From January to October, the revenue from the main business of high-tech manufacturing increased by 13.6 percent over the same period of last year,  an increase of 1.2 percentage points over companies with annual sales of over five million yuan.

Among them, the assets-liability ratio of state-owned and controlled enterprises was 60.9 percent, down 0.5 percentage points year-on-year and 0.1 percentage points from the end of September.  

"The profit growth of SOEs and joint-stock enterprises further accelerated (see chart above). The profits of the collective and private enterprises slowed while the foreign profits were flat at the previous level," Sun Chao, vice general manager of fixed income at Changjiang Securities, told CGTN.

"Under the supply-side structural reform, the cost-cutting and deleveraging efforts are taking effects, the supply and demand of the upstream industries were improved. For example, the number of unprofitable enterprises in the upstream industries such as the mining industry decreased, and as a result, the profits of the entire industry jumped," added Sun. "Meanwhile, the turnover of capitals is accelerated and the operating efficiency of the enterprises also continues to rise."

Sun also pointed out that with deeper opening of China’s economy, the entry barriers for foreign-funded enterprises will be further reduced. With the simplification of the examination and approval procedures, more investment areas will be opened and foreign-funded enterprises are expected to see improvements in profits.