Photo taken on May 9, 2017 shows an automated system for shifting garments at a kid garment enterprise in Zhili town, Huzhou city, East China's Zhejiang province. (XU YU / XINHUA)

BEIJING - China's garment industry registered steady expansion in terms of revenue, profits and exports in the first nine months of this year, data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology showed.

The combined operating revenue of the country's 13,155 major apparel enterprises reached 1.08 trillion yuan (about $148.85 billion) in the period, up 2.2 percent year-on-year, according to the ministry.

These companies raked in total profits of 49.6 billion yuan in the January-September period, up 1.8 percent over one year ago.

READ MORE: China's garment industry posts revenue growth

During the same period, garment exports of the sector surged 14 percent year-on-year to $118.5 billion, the data showed.