Profits at China's industrial firms shrank at their fastest pace in eight months in October, tracking sustained drops in producer prices and exports and underscoring slowing momentum in the world's second-largest economy.

Industrial profits fell 9.9% in October year-on-year to 427.56 billion yuan, data released by the National Bureau of Statistics showed, marking the biggest drop since January-February period and compared with a 5.3% decline in September.

China's industrial sector has been under pressure in recent months as slowing demand at home and the fallout from the Sino-U.S. trade dispute undercut earnings.

Profit declines for the manufacturing sector deepened in October, as margins contracted by 4.9% in the January-October period, compared with a 3.9% drop in the first nine months of the year. Meanwhile, mining sector profit growth also moderated.

For January-October, industrial firms' profits fell 2.9% from a year earlier to 5.02 trillion yuan, compared with a 2.1% decline in January September.