BEIJING, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) saw profits rise 25.3 percent in the first two months of 2018 as the economy kicked off the year with better-than-expected performance, official data showed Wednesday.

Combined SOE profits rose to 367.3 billion yuan (around 58.5 billion U.S. dollars) for the January-February period, the Ministry of Finance said.