China's SOEs Jan-April profits up 6.5 pct

Combined profits of China's state-owned enterprises increased 6.5 percent year on year to 742.84 billion yuan ($120.54 billion) in the first four months of 2014.

The pace of growth was faster than that of a year ago and also outpaced the first quarter, an encouraging signal despite the country's slowing economic growth, the Ministry of Finance said on Friday.

The boost in figures was mainly attributed to SOEs administered by local authorities, as they posted the first profit increase of the year, a 5.1-percent growth rate, much better than the 14.7-percent decline in the same period in 2013.

Profits of SOEs administered by the central government gained 6.9 percent year on year, ministry data showed.

The country's SOE revenues totaled 14.83 trillion yuan, up 5.5 percent year on year, while their operation costs stood at 14.29 trillion yuan, up 5.8 percent. The amount of taxes payable totaled 1.25 trillion yuan.

By the end of April, total assets of the enterprises increased 10.9 percent year on year to 94.55 trillion yuan, with liabilities at 61.53 trillion yuan, up 11.1 percent from a year ago.

By sectors, SOEs in construction material, automobile and real estate posted large increases. Those of the transport sector stopped losses, but enterprises of iron and steel and non-ferrous metal kept declining.

The data, which excludes financial SOEs, was collected from SOEs in 36 provincial-level regions and those administered by the central government.