This undated photo captures workers carrying out tasks relating to construction of a refinery project at a petrochemical industry base in Lianyungang, Jiangsu province. (WANG JIANMIN / FOR CHINA DAILY)

BEIJING – The combined profits of China's State-owned enterprises surged 55.4 percent year-on-year to 3.5 trillion yuan (about $547 billion) in the first nine months of 2021, official data showed on Thursday.

During the period, SOEs saw their combined operating revenue up 23 percent year on year to nearly 54 trillion yuan, according to the Ministry of Finance.

Centrally administered SOEs saw their profits increase 52 percent year on year to 2.34 trillion yuan in the first nine months.

The combined revenue of centrally administered SOEs rose 22 percent year on year to 30.31 trillion yuan.

At the end of September, the debt-to-asset ratio of the country's SOEs came in at 64.2 percent, down 0.1 percentage points from the level seen in the same period last year, the data showed.

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