Industrial enterprises in China's 22 regions reported a combined profit of 1.55 trillion yuan (US$227.5 billion) in first nine months, down 9.1 percent year on year, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Wednesday.

NBS statistics showed the decline was 4 percentage points less than that of January-August period.

Altogether 35 of the 39 major industrial sectors realized profit growth or smaller profit declines compared with the first eight months, said the NBS.

Core business revenues of those companies reached 28.8 trillion yuan in the first nine months, up 3.4 percent from a year earlier. The growth rate was 1.5 percentage points higher than that of the first eight months.

The accounts receivable of enterprises in the 22 regions stood at about 3.56 trillion yuan at the end of September, up 10.6 percent year on year.

The 22 regions comprise all of China's provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions except Beijing, Chongqing, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Hunan, Guangdong, Anhui, Hainan and Yunnan provinces, and Tibet Autonomous Region.