BEIJING, Aug. 20 -- China's state-owned enterprises (SOEs) saw faster profit growth in the first seven months of 2014 as the economy showed more signs of stabilizing, according to data from the Ministry of Finance (MOF).

The combined profits of China's SOEs rose 9.2 percent year on year to 1.43 trillion yuan (232.2 billion U.S. dollars) during the January-July period, accelerating slightly from the 8.9-percent rise for the first half of the year.

Despite the steady gains in profits, rise in operating costs still outpaced revenue growth, dimming the outlook for future profit growth, according to the data.

Total business revenues for the state firms increased 5.8 percent from a year ago to 27.2 trillion yuan in the first seven months, while operating costs rose at a faster pace of 6 percent to 26.26 trillion yuan.

By the end of July, SOEs' total assets stood at 97.87 trillion yuan, while liabilities grew 12.2 percent year on year to 63.85 trillion yuan.

Between January and July, steel, transportation and building materials companies reported higher profits, but coal and chemical industries saw notable drops in profits.

The figures, which exclude financial SOEs, were collected from SOEs in 36 provincial-level regions and those administered by the central government.

China has thousands of SOEs, 113 of which are directly administered by the country's central authority.