The profits of China's state-owned enterprises (SOEs) nosedived in July, with the pace of decline picking up dramatically from the first six months of the year, data from the Ministry of Finance revealed on Wednesday.
Their profits declined 2.3 percent year on year in the Jan.-July period to 1.4 trillion yuan (221.2 billion U.S. dollars), while the drop was just 0.1 percent in the first six months.
Profits of SOEs directly administered by the central government tumbled 4.5 percent from January to July to about one trillion yuan, while those administered by local governments saw a 3.6-percent profit increase.
Non-ferrous metal, steel and coal companies suffered big losses.
