China's industrial enterprises posted a year-on-year profits growth of 27 percent in the first three quarters of 2011, according to new figures, but the pace has slowed compared to the year's previous measurement periods.

The combined profits of industrial enterprises amounted to 3.68 trillion yuan (580 billion U.S. dollars) between January and September, according to a National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) statement added to its website Thursday.

The 27-percent growth in January-September marked the slowest expansion rate of industrial profits in the year, as compared to 28.2 percent for the January-August period, 28.3 percent for January-July and 28.7 percent for the first half of the year, according to the NBS.

The data was collected from a pool of industrial businesses with at least 20 million yuan of annual sales revenue.

Among 39 industries surveyed, 37 sectors reported profit growth. But the oil refining, coking and nuclear-fuel processing sector saw profit plunge 83.9 percent in the period. Communications equipment, computer and other electronic device manufacturers suffered a 2.5-percent profit drop.

Private businesses posted the fastest profit growth, with a year-on-year rise of 44.7 percent, followed by collectively owned enterprises (33.36 percent), equity-holding companies (23.4 per cent), state-owned enterprises (19.8 percent) and overseas-funded firms (12.9 percent).