BEIJING (REUTERS) - Profits earned by China's industrial firms in September surged 27.7 per cent from a year earlier, the statistics bureau said on Friday (Oct 27), accelerating from a 24 per cent rise in August.

Industrial profits increased 22.8 percent in the first nine months of 2017 from the same period last year, versus a 21.6 per cent rise in January-August.

China's long-ailing industrial sector has seen a sharp turnaround this year as a building boom boosts demand and factory-gate prices, producing the strongest profits in years and giving them more room to start tackling a mountain of debt.

Total profits in September rose to 662.18 billion yuan, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on its website.

The data covers large companies with annual revenue of more than 20 million yuan from their main operations.