China's state-owned enterprises (SOEs) posted a narrower decline in profits in the first seven months from the first half as the country's economy improves on the government's stimulus packages.

Profits of China's SOEs dropped 22.8 percent from a year earlier to 686.18 billion yuan (100.4 billion U.S. dollars) in the first seven months, 4.2 percentage points lower than the figure in the first six months, the Ministry of Finance said in a statement on its Web site Friday.

The statement didn't give the July data alone but said July profits were down 2 percent from June.

Revenue topped nearly 11.64 trillion yuan, down 4.7 percent from a year ago. The decline was 1.2 percentage points smaller than the figure of the first six months.

Profits of the central government-administered SOEs decreased 16.6 percent year on year to 509.41 billion yuan from January to July.

China's SOEs have saw a smaller profit decline for the fifth consecutive month in July as the country's economy continued expansion from the worst growth in a decade in the first quarter.

July continued to see positive signs of economic activities, with industrial output climbing 10.8 percent from a year earlier, faster than the 10.7 percent in June.

The statement said the country's steel and nonferrous metals sectors returned to profits in the July. The shipping industry continued losses and coal sector saw deeper decline of profits.