Profits of China's state-owned enterprises excluding those administered by the central government continued to drop in the first 11 months from a year ago, but the rate of decline narrowed sharply.

The SOEs posted combined profits of 258.39 billion yuan (US$38 billion), down 6.5 percent year on year, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) announced Thursday.

The rate of decline was 11.7 percentage points lower than that for the first ten months, the country's assets watchdog said.

Business revenue of the SOEs grew 2.8 percent year on year to 5.9 trillion yuan in the first 11 months.

The SOEs include enterprises affiliated to 82 central departments, and those administered by provincial, regional and municipal governments but exclude 131 enterprises administered by the SASAC.

(Xinhua News Agency December 24, 2009)