Profits of China's state-owned enterprises (SOEs) dropped 22.8 percent from a year earlier to 686.18 billion yuan in the first seven months, 4.2 percentage points lower than the figure in the first six months, the Ministry of Finance said in a statement on its Web site last Friday. July profits were down 2 percent from June.

Revenue in the same period totaled 11.64 trillion yuan, down 4.7% from the same period of last year. The decline was 1.2 percentage points smaller than the figure of the first six months.

China's SOEs have saw a smaller profit decline for the fifth consecutive month in July as the country's economy continued expansion from the worst growth in a decade in the first quarter.

July continued to see positive signs of economic activities, with industrial output climbing 10.8 percent from a year earlier, faster than the 10.7 percent in June.

The statement said the country's steel and nonferrous metals sectors returned to profits in the July. The shipping industry continued losses and coal sector saw deeper decline of profits.  Inventory increased 8.4% in the first 7 months year on year.