Revenues of China's centrally-administered state-owned enterprises (SOEs) dropped by 7.8 percent year on year in the first half of 2020 to 13.4 trillion yuan (1.9 trillion U.S. dollars), the country's state asset regulator said Thursday.

Workers inspecting the operation of equipment at a substation, Chengdu, China, July 2, 2020. (Photo: VCG)

Thursday's data reflected the economic disruption from the COVID-19 pandemic while also indicated that prevention and control measures have led to accelerated recovery.

Central SOEs achieved a net profit of 166.48 billion yuan in June, an increase of 64.63 billion yuan from May, a year-on-year increase of 5 percent, record the first positive monthly net profit this year.

In the first half of the year, the central SOEs accumulated a net profit of 438.55 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 37.7 percent, according to Peng Huagang, spokesperson for the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council.

Since the resumption of work carrying out in March, fixed asset investment from central SOEs has reached 1 trillion yuan in the first half of this year, a year-on-year jump of 7.2 percent.

The fixed-asset investment includes capital spent on infrastructure, property, machinery, and other physical assets.

To assist small and medium-sized enterprises fighting the epidemic, central SOEs implemented a series of policies in reducing electricity prices and rents. The total operating cost of enterprises was reduced by more than 120 billion yuan in the first half of the year, said Peng.

Looking into the second half of the year, Peng said the central SOEs would seize new infrastructure investment opportunities such as 5G and continue to strengthen the supervision of projects in high-risk areas, including finance.