China State firms' Jan-April profits fall 63%

BEIJING - Profits at China's State-owned enterprises (SOEs) fell 63 percent year-on-year in the first four months of 2020, official data showed.

This came after a decline of 59.7 percent in the first quarter of the year, according to data from the Ministry of Finance.

Total profits at the SOEs stood at 412.01 billion yuan ($57.79 billion) during the January-April period.

SOEs have generated combined revenue of 17.03 trillion yuan during the period, down 9.2 percent from a year earlier, and its operating costs saw a 6.2-percent fall to 16.92 trillion yuan, the ministry said.

SOEs' debt-to-asset ratio edged up to 64.6 percent at the end of April, compared with 64.5 percent at the end of March.