Economic indicators show gradual improvement

China's economy is gradually improving as some economic indicators are continuing to recover.

The revenue of state-owned enterprises increased 4 percent in May from a month earlier, with the figure returning to 98.6 percent of the same period last year, and gross revenue reached 21.84 trillion yuan ($3.09 trillion) in the first five months, down 7.7 percent year-on-year, according to the latest data from the Ministry of Finance.

Total profit surged 251.1 percent month-on-month in May to recover to 94.5 percent of the same period last year, and the figure reached 663.1 billion yuan from January to May, dropping 52.7 percent from a year earlier.

In May, State-owned enterprises saw a 415 percent month-on-month surge in net profits, with 398.16 billion yuan in the first five months, a drop of 61.6 percent year-on-year.

From January to May, State-owned enterprises paid 1.75 trillion yuan in taxes and fees, 8.3 percent down compared with the same period last year.

The asset-liability ratio was 64.6 percent by the end of May, up 0.4 percentage points, with local State-owned enterprises posting a higher growth rate than central State-owned enterprises.

In May, indicators in the transportation industry continue to recover.

Fixed-asset investments in transportation reached 1.02 trillion yuan in the first five months, up 0.9 percent year-on-year, and the May figure was 343.3 billion yuan, an increase of 27 percent from a year earlier according to the Ministry of Transport.

The volume of commercial passenger traffic reached 740 million in May, returning to 50.7 percent of the same period last year, an increase of 10.9 percentage points over April.

China's public transport in 36 central cities handled 3.52 billion passengers in May, recovering to 60.9 percent of the same period last year and up 10.9 percentage points from April.

In May, the volume of freight traffic reached 4.07 billion tons, up 0.4 percent year-on-year, showing positive growth for the first time this year.

Ports handled 1.26 billion tons of goods, an increase of 4.4 percent from the same period last year, with domestic and foreign trade throughputs increasing 6 and 0.9 percent year-on-year, respectively.