The profits of China's major state-owned firms grew 20.6 percent year-on-year to 424.71 billion yuan (US$52.4 billion) from January to July, down 0.5 percentage points over the first half year.

Data released by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission showed that the major state-owned firms enjoyed sound operation as a whole during the January-July period, but differences among sectors expanded.

In the first seven months, the total profit of the leading six sectors, namely, petrochemical, telecom, metallurgy, transportation, electricity and coal, grew 28 percent year-on-year to 348.47 billion yuan, while profit of the other 22 sectors dropped 4.7 percent.

From January to July, the industrial output of the major state-owned firms grew 23.2 percent over the same period last year to 3685.43 billion yuan, and their revenues grew 22.8 percent to 4792.79 billion yuan, according to the statistics.

Among the 28 sectors, 21 sectors witnessed faster growth in cost than in revenues, and sectors concerning energy and raw materials enjoyed faster growth than the average.

(Xinhua News Agency September 14, 2005)