BEIJING - Earning growth at China's industrial firms in November increased in the first 11 months with improved profitability and lower costs.

Profits of China's major industrial firms grew 11.8 percent year-on-year in the first 11 months of 2018, down from the 13.6 percent expansion for the January-October period, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Thursday.

Profits in 34 of the 41 sectors surveyed rose compared with one year earlier, unchanged from that for the January-October period, according to the NBS.

In November, combined profits at industrial firms with annual revenue of more than 20 million yuan ($2.89 million) fell 1.8 percent year-on-year to 594.75 billion yuan, compared with an increase of 3.6 percent recorded in October.

According to the NBS, the sectors of steel, construction materials, oil exploitation, chemicals and special equipment manufacturing contributed 76.6 percent to the overall industrial profit increase.

By the end of November, the debt-asset ratios of major industrial firms dropped 0.4 percentage points from a year earlier to 56.8 percent.

NBS official He Ping attributed the slowdown in November to slower growth in industrial production and product prices, as well as a high comparative base last year.

He noted operating costs and leverage ratios for industrial companies kept falling amid slower growth in industrial profits, while their profitability continued to improve.

In early November, the NBS reported China's value-added industrial output, an important economic indicator, expanded 5.4 percent year-on-year in November.

The growth rate was 0.5 percentage points lower than that recorded in October.

Industrial output, officially called industrial value added, is used to measure the activity of designated large enterprises with an annual revenue of at least 20 million yuan.