Profits of China's major industrial firms surged 34.3 percent year on year in 2021 as industrial production continued to recover, official data showed on Thursday.

Industrial firms with annual business revenues of at least 20 million yuan (about 3.16 million U.S. dollars) saw their combined profits reach 8.71 trillion yuan last year, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed.

The full-year industrial profits were 39.8 percent higher than the 2019 level, putting the average annual growth for 2020 and 2021 at 18.2 percent.

In 2021, the combined revenues of those firms went up 19.4 percent from a year ago to 127.92 trillion yuan, and 32 out of 41 industries saw growth in profits.

In December alone, major industrial companies raked in profits of 734.2 billion yuan, up 4.2 percent year on year, NBS data showed.