China's central SOEs revenue growth up in 2022

The revenues of China's centrally administrated stateowned enterprises (SOEs) increased 8.3 percent year on year to 39.4 trillion yuan (5.86 trillion U.S. dollars) in 2022, the country's SOE regulator said Tuesday.

Profits gained 5.5 percent year on year to reach 2.55 trillion yuan and net profits climbed 5 percent to 1.9 trillion yuan, according to the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council.

China's SOEs balanced COVID-19 response with effective production and also introduced a series of reforms in 2022, said Peng Huagang, secretary general and spokesperson of the commission.

In 2022, the productivity of central SOEs increased steadily, with the annualized overall labor productivity reaching about 763,000 yuan per person-up 8.7 percent year on year. Investment in research and development continued to grow with a year-on-year rise of 9.8 percent.

The average debt-toasset ratio of central SOEs stood at 64.8 percent at the end of . At a pawn shop in the west German city of Duisburg, a young woman hands over a mobile phone and in return gets a wad of cash to help make ends meet-for a while.

Soaring prices mean the 120 euros ($129.20) now in Carrie-Ann's pocket will soon be gone, she says.

"I've got shopping to do, cat food, cigarettes for my mum," says the 20-year-old, who has registered with a job centre while she seeks new employment. The rising cost of energy in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine pushed inflation in Germany to a peak of 10.4 percent in October 2022 -- a level not seen in decades.