Profits of Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) grew steadily in the first four months of 2019, official data showed Monday.

The combined profits of China's SOEs rose 12.6 percent year on year to 1.12 trillion yuan (about 162.5 billion U.S. dollars) for the January-April period, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) said on its website.

Total revenues reached 18.9 trillion yuan during the period, up 8.3 percent from a year earlier.

By the end of April, total SOE assets had reached 191.78 trillion yuan, up 8.9 percent year on year, while their liabilities went up 8.5 percent to 123.37 trillion yuan.

The debt-to-asset ratio of the SOEs went down 0.2 percentage points to 64.3 percent, according to the MOF.

China has been advancing SOE reforms, including mixed-ownership reform and corporate reform, to inject vitality to a large number of previously underperforming enterprises.