Profits of Chinese SOEs down in first five months amid pandemic

China's state-owned enterprises (SOEs) reported increased revenue but decreased profits in the first five months of this year, due to a high comparison base last year and the impacts of the pandemic, official data showed Tuesday.

The combined profits of SOEs declined 6.5 percent year on year to 1.63 trillion yuan (US$243.5 billion) in the first five months, according to data from the Ministry of Finance.

The SOEs raked in 30.88 trillion yuan in operating revenue in the January-May period, 9.2 percent higher than the same period last year.

Total profits of China's centrally administered SOEs rose 0.4 percent from a year earlier to 1.23 trillion yuan in the period, and their operating revenue was up 11.2 percent to 17.5 trillion yuan.

At the end of May, the SOEs' ratio of liabilities to assets came in at 64.3 percent, up 0.1 percentage points from a year earlier.