Chinese state firms report solid growth in profit

BEIJING, Mar 28 (Xinhua): Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) reported solid profit growth in the first two months of 2018 as the economy kicked off the year with better-than-expected performance, official data showed Wednesday. Combined SOE profits rose 25.3 per cent year on year to 367.3 billion yuan (around 58.5 billion U.S. dollars) for the January-February period, the Ministry of Finance said.

The growth was higher than the 23.5 per cent increase seen in 2017.

SOE business revenue totaled 8.3 trillion yuan during the period, up 11.2 per cent from a year earlier. Operating costs went up 10.6 per cent to 8.1 trillion yuan.

By the end of February, total SOE assets stood at 163.6 trillion yuan, while their liabilities reached 107 trillion yuan, up 9.7 per cent and 9.3 per cent, respectively. SOEs in petrochemical, steel and power generation enjoyed relatively large profit increases, but non-ferrous metal firms suffered significant declines.

China has thousands of SOEs, but many have stagnated due to lack of competition. The government is improving their performance through a series of reforms, moving toward mixed ownership and market-oriented management.