Profits of China's state-owned enterprises (SOEs) slid 27 percent year on year in the first half of the year, but the decline rate started to narrow in the second quarter as the industrial expansion is gradually recovering.

Their profits totaled 553.4 billion yuan (81.38 billion U.S. dollars) between January and June, according to the Ministry of Finance Thursday.

The decline was 3.3 percentage points smaller than the figure for the first five months.

Sales revenue fell 5.9 percent year on year to 9.79 trillion yuan.

Profits of the 138 central government-administered SOEs decreased 20.9 percent to 416.4 billion yuan.

China's SOEs have seen a smaller profit decline for four months as the economy started to rebound in the second quarter from the worst growth in a decade.

The industrial output tumbled to 3.8 percent in the first two months, but bounced back to 8.3 percent in March as the government's 4-trillion yuan stimulus package started to take effect.

The industrial output rose 7.0 percent in the first half, according to the figure released by the National Bureau of Statistics Thursday.