BEIJING — China's centrally administered State-owned enterprises (SOEs) saw strong profit and revenue growth in the first 11 months of the year, according to the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC).

Despite downward pressure on the economy, the net profits of central SOEs expanded 9 percent year-on-year and their combined operating revenue rose 5 percent during the January-November period, SASAC data showed.

The supply-side structural reform of central SOEs has deepened, with a total of 14,000 legal persons removed and the overcapacity-cutting of steel and coal completed, Hao Peng, chief of the SASAC, said at a meeting.

During the period, central SOEs' spending on research and development jumped 24.6 percent from a year earlier, with firms in petroleum, steel and automobiles industries notching a year-on-year growth of over 30 percent.

The average debt-to-asset ratio of China's central SOEs dropped by 0.1 percentage points by the end of November.

Central SOEs have finished the task of transferring State-owned shares to social security funds in 2019, with 1.1 trillion yuan (about $157 billion) worth of State capital pumped into the funds.