Profits of China's major industrial firms grew 15.7% year over year to 5.272 trillion yuan during the first eight months of the year, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released on Monday.

The year-to-date pace decelerated compared with the 17.6% expansion recorded in the previous period, and missed the Trading Economics forecast of 18% growth.

From January to August, the mining industry achieved a total profit of 766.15 billion yuan, up 35.1% year over year, while the manufacturing industry's profit grew 17.4% to 3.969 trillion yuan.

Meanwhile, the electricity, heat, gas and water production and supply industry recorded a total profit of 536.30 billion yuan, a decrease of 12%.