Profits of China's central SOEs slightly up

BEIJING - China's State-owned enterprises (SOEs) administered by the country's State-asset regulator saw profits slightly up in 2013, according to official data released on Wednesday.

The State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC), said in a statement that those companies made total profits of 1.3 trillion yuan ($212.81 billion), up 3.8 percent year on year.

The growth rate was 1.1 percentage points higher than that for 2012.

The SASAC also said revenues of central SOEs rose 8.4 percent to 24.2 trillion yuan, while the taxes they handed in edged up 5.2 percent to 2 trillion yuan.

All SOEs and their holding companies saw profits up 5.9 percent last year, compared with an annual decline of 5.8 percent in 2012, the Ministry of Finance said on Tuesday.

The improving figures came as the country's economy grew at a steady pace, with gross domestic output up 7.7 percent year on year in 2013, the same level as a year earlier and above the government's target of 7.5 percent.