China's industrial profits down 14 percent from Jan. to Feb.

The profits of China's major industrial enterprises fell in the first two months of the Year, statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed Wednesday.

The main business income for major industrial enterprises with annual revenue of more than 20 million yuan (about three million U.S. dollars) reached 708.01 billion yuan in the January to February period, down 14 percent than the previous Year, said the NBS.

State-owned enterprises saw profits down 24.2 percent Year on Year to reach 222.37 billion yuan during the first two months, and private firms' profit growth dipped 5.8 percent to 188.95 billion yuan.

NBS statistician Zhu Hong said the decline is mainly due to the profit fall in some key industries as well as the influence of the Spring Festival holiday.

From January to February, profits in auto, petroleum processing, steel and chemical industries registered significant decrease. Discounting the four industries, the profits of major industries would be up 0.2 percent Year on Year, according to Zhu Hong.

Zhu also said the slowdown in production and sales growth also affected the performance of the industrial enterprises.