IN BRIEF (Page 15)

Profits at SOEs rise 76 percent

The profits of China's centrally-administered State-owned enterprises (SOEs) totaled 421.32 billion yuan in the January-May period, a rise of 76 percent from a year ago, the nation's SOE watchdog said on Friday.

The profit increase slowed from the 87 percent year-on-year growth during the first four months, according to figures released by the State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC).The sharp profit increase this year was due to last year's lower comparison base when SOEs were hard hit by the global economic recession, according to the SASAC.