Fresh government data shows that September profits for Chinese industrial firms stood at 577 billion yuan, up 7.7 percent from a year ago. The National Bureau of Statistics says the growth rate was down from 19.5 percent in August.

Industrial profits rose 8.4 percent in the first nine months of this year from the same period in 2015. That was unchanged from the year's first eight months.

Thirty-one of 41 industrial sectors saw an increase in profit from a year earlier with the energy and steel sectors reporting strong growth.