Profits of China's State-owned enterprises (SOEs) continued to fall in the first nine months from a year earlier, but the decline was smaller than those of the first eight months.

Profits in the country's SOEs fell 17.6 percent year-on-year in the first nine months to 936.61 billion yuan (US$137.13 billion), two percentage points lower compared with the January-August period, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) announced Monday.

The MOF statement did not give the September figure alone but said it was 12 percent lower than the August profits.

Profits of central SOEs totaled 679.68 billion yuan from January to September, down 13 percent from a year earlier. Central SOEs covered 133 centrally-administered SOEs and 82 SOEs affiliated to central departments.

Business revenue of SOEs fell 1.7 percent year-on-year to 15.84 trillion yuan in the first nine months.

(Xinhua News Agency October 20, 2009)