BUSINESS revenues of China's state-owned enterprises rose 38.8 percent in the first seven months of this year from the same period last year, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday.

Business revenues stood at 16.87 trillion yuan (US$2.49 trillion) in the first seven months, said a statement on its website.

The figure in July, however, was 7.8 percent lower than that in June.

Profits of the SOEs reached 1.10 trillion yuan in the first seven months, up an annual 50.1 percent. The figure in July was 11.5 percent lower than that in June.

The firms include SOEs directly controlled by the central government and SOEs supervised by local governments, but exclude state-owned financial enterprises.