The combined profit of China's State-owned enterprises (SOEs), excluding financial institutions, totaled 1.184 trillion yuan (US$269 billion) in 2008, down 25.2 percent from a year earlier, the Ministry of Finance said.

The ministry said enterprises in the power generation and airline sectors have posted big losses in 2008. Corporate earnings in such industries as transportation, oil, petrochemical, steel, nonferrous metal and auto, also fell sharply. Coal producers, however, had maintained a high level of profitability last year, the ministry said.

(China Daily January 23, 2009)