Profit for China's state firms drops
Xinhua, March 20, 2015 Adjust font size:
China's state-owned enterprises (SOEs) saw their profits drop in the first two months of 2015, the Ministry of Finance announced on Friday.
The combined profits of China's SOEs dropped 21.5 percent year on year to 256 billion yuan (41.9 billion U.S. dollars) during the January-February period.
Total business revenues for the state firms shrank 5.4 percent from a year ago to 6.59 trillion yuan in the first two months, while operating costs retreated 4.7 percent to 6.42 trillion yuan.
By the end of February, SOEs' total assets stood at 105 trillion yuan, up 11.9 percent year on year. Liabilities grew 12.2 percent year on year to 68.01 trillion yuan.
Between January and February, electronics, property, electricity and chemical sectors reported higher profits, but oil, construction materials and machinery saw notable drops in profits. Petrochemical, steel and coal sectors reported losses.
The figures, which exclude financial firms, were collected from SOEs in 36 provincial-level regions and those administered by the central government.
China has thousands of SOEs, 113 of which are directly administered by the country's central authorities. Endi