BEIJING -- Profits of China's major industrial companies saw a narrower decline in May as factories have restarted production lines amid improving business activities, official data showed Monday.

Major industrial firms, each with business revenue of at least 20 million yuan (about $2.99 million), saw their profits decline 6.5 percent from a year earlier last month, narrowing from 8.5-percent contraction in April, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed.

Zhu Hong, a senior statistician with the NBS, attributed the slower contraction to effective epidemic control, recovering business activities and progress achieved in smoothing logistics in the country.

In May, revenues of these major firms went up 6.8 percent year-on-year, a faster growth pace compared with April, laying a solid foundation for profit improvements.

During the January-May period, these industrial firms raked in around 3.44 trillion yuan in total profits, up 1 percent year-on-year, NBS data showed.

The revenues of these major firms went up 9.1 percent year-on-year to 53.16 trillion yuan during the first five months.