China's Q1 central SOEs investment posts rapid growth

BEIJING - China's centrally-administered State-owned enterprises (SOEs) invested 497.89 billion yuan ($76.25 billion) in fixed assets in the first three months. It is up 36.5 percent from a year ago, according to official data on Friday.

In March alone, central SOEs invested 191.44 billion yuan. It is an increase of 12.9 percent year-on-year, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) of the State Council told a press conference.

During the January-March period, fixed-asset investment of power generation companies surged by 79.4 percent year-on-year to 109.64 billion yuan. That of power grid SOEs grew by 47.9 percent from the same period of last year to 79.73 billion yuan, according to the SASAC.

Data also showed the overall solvency of central SOEs remained stable in the first quarter. By the end of March, the average debt-to-asset ratio of central SOEs stood at 64.7 percent, down by 0.8 percentage points from a year earlier.