BEIJING — China's centrally-administered state-owned enterprises (SOEs) saw both profit and revenue growth in June, recovering from a COVID-19 downturn, the country's state-asset regulator said on July 16.

Revenues of central SOEs climbed 0.6 percent year-on-year to 2.9 trillion yuan (about $414.8 billion) in June, while net profits hit 166.48 billion yuan, up 5 percent, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) said at a press conference.

"Since the beginning of the second quarter, performance of central SOEs improved significantly, and the decline in their revenues and profits continued to narrow," SASAC spokesperson Peng Huagang said.

For the first half of the year, the total operating revenue of central SOEs went down 7.8 percent from a year ago to reach 13.4 trillion yuan. But state firms in the construction, automobile and communications industries registered revenue growth year-on-year.

Central SOEs realized 438.55 billion yuan of net profits in the January-June period, down 37.7 percent from the same period last year, narrowing by 12.6 percentage points compared with the decline in the first five months.