BEIJING, July 28 (Xinhua) -- Profits at Chinese industrial enterprises in 24 regions climbed 71.8 percent year on year to 1.61 trillion yuan (237.5 billion U.S. dollars) in the first six months, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Wednesday.

The growth rate was 11.2 percentage points lower than that in the first five months, the NBS said in a statement.

Combined revenues for the enterprises totaled 25.9 trillion yuan in the first half of the year, up 36.5 percent from a year earlier - a growth rate 2.4 percentage points lower than in the January-to-May period.

Most of the 39 major industries posted year-on-year profit growth.

The 24 regions comprise all of the Chinese mainland provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions except the Inner Mongolia and Tibet autonomous regions; Hunan, Guangdong, Hainan and Yunnan provinces; and Chongqing.

China's industrial value-added output expanded 17.6 percent year on year in the first half of the year. But month-on-month growth began to slow in March, with June's growth at 13.7 percent year on year.