BEIJING — Profits of Chinese State-owned enterprises (SOEs) maintained stable growth in the first quarter of 2019, official data showed on April 23.

The combined profits of SOEs rose 15.6 percent year-on-year to 819.77 billion yuan ($122 billion) for the January-March period, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) said on its website.

SOEs generated a revenue of almost 14 trillion yuan during the period, up 8.9 percent from a year earlier, and operating costs increased 9.2 percent to 13.52 trillion yuan.

By the end of March, total SOE assets had reached 190.27 trillion yuan, up 9 percent in the first three months of the year, while their liabilities went up 8.8 percent to 122.57 trillion yuan. The debt-to-asset ratio of SOEs went down 0.1 percentage points to 64.4 percent, according to the MOF.

SOEs in sectors including oil and transport posted robust profit growth during the period.