Workers are seen at a factory of Great Wall Motors in Yongchuan district of Chongqing, 

Southwest China, March 18, 2020. [Photo/Xinhua]

BEIJING - Profits of China's major industrial firms continued to fall in the first four months of 2020, but the decline was seen to narrow amid efforts to coordinate COVID-19 containment and economic growth, official data showed Wednesday.

Profits of industrial companies with annual revenue of more than 20 million yuan ($2.8 million) totaled 1.26 trillion yuan during the January-April period, down 27.4 percent year-on-year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The contraction narrowed from the 36.7-percent decline in the first quarter, NBS data showed.

In April alone, industrial profits edged down 4.3 percent, recovering from the 34.9-percent drop registered in March as production and sales rebounded amid the nationwide restoration of economic activities, NBS statistician Zhu Hong noted.

Profits at 80 percent of the industrial firms showed improvements, with more than half of them reporting profit growth last month, according to the NBS.

Automobiles, special-purpose equipment and electronics were among the sectors that saw the most visible recovery, with profits in the auto industry expanding 29.5 percent year-on-year, rebounding from the 80.4-percent slump in March.