BEIJING, Dec. 27 -- Profits of China's major industrial firms fell 1.4 percent year on year in November, narrowing from a 4.6-percent decline posted in October, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Sunday.

Profits at industrial companies with annual revenues of more than 20 million yuan (about 3.1 million U.S. dollars) totaled 672.1 billion yuan in November.

Industrial profits of these firms in the first 11 months of this year dropped 1.9 percent year on year to around 5.5 trillion yuan, the NBS said. The decline narrowed from a 2-percent decrease registered in the Jan.-Oct. period.