China’s centrally administrated large state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in the third quarter recorded their first quarterly increase in revenue since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, official data showed, reported Caixin.
Revenue of central SOEs grew 1.5% year-on-year to RMB 7.8 trillion ($1.17 trillion) in the third quarter, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC), said Tuesday at a news conference. That compares with a contraction of 7.8% in the first half and a decline of 11.8% in the first quarter, when the economy was hit hard by the outbreak.
The improvement of the domestic macroeconomic environment was one reason for the rebound in operating performance of SOEs in the third quarter, said Peng Huagang, a spokesman for SASAC.
The central SOEs posted profits of RMB 474.8 billion in the third quarter, an increase of 3.4% from a year ago. In September alone, the large SOEs achieved record profit of RMB 204.6 billion for the month and the highest margin in a decade at 9.5%.