The combined profit of China's state-owned enterprises (SOEs) climbed 65.8 percent year on year in the first five months of 2010 to 749.29 billion yuan (US$110.2 billion), the Ministry of Finance said Tuesday.

Business revenue totaled 11.5 trillion yuan in the period, up 44.5 percent from a year earlier, the ministry said in a statement.

The profit growth rate in May was 1.2 percentage points lower than in April, the statement said without elaborating.

The statement did not provide reasons for the surge in profit and revenue, but analysts attributed it to a low comparison base, as the nation's economy was severely affected by the global economic downturn in the early months of 2009.

The oil and coal industries' profits increased markedly in the January to May period, the statement added.

(Xinhua News Agency June 23, 2010)