BEIJING -- Profits for China's industrial businesses rose 27.9 percent year-on-year in the first five months of this year to hit 1.92 trillion yuan ($296.80 billion), the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced on Monday.

The growth rate, however, was 1.8 percentage points lower than that of the first four months of this year.

The NBS figures showed that combined revenues for the country's industrial firms rose 29.4 percent year-on-year to reach 31.10 trillion yuan in the first five months of this year.

The report was based on a survey of industrial companies with annual sales exceeding 20 million yuan each. Survey of industrial companies before 2011 used a sales threshold of 5 million yuan.

Combined profits for State-owned and State-controlled companies increased by 19.6 percent year-on-year to 633.4 billion yuan, while those of collective-owned companies jumped 29.8 percent to 29.8 billion yuan.

In the first five months, foreign-funded enterprises and those funded by investors from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan registered a combined annual profit increase of 15.4 percent, totaling 517.7 billion yuan, the NBS said.

Out of the 39 industries surveyed, 37 reported year-on-year profit growth in the January-May period, while two reported declines in profit growth.

The oil and natural gas exploration sector reported a 37 percent increase in profits. The ferrous metal mining industry saw its profits climb 55.9 percent, while the chemical fiber sector gained 56.9 percent year-on-year during the January-May period.

The oil production, coke making and nuclear fuel production sectors shrank 51 percent and the ferrous metal melting and production sector dropped 1.1 percent in profits year-on-year in the first five months.