China's centrally-administered state-owned enterprises (SOEs) have expanded effective investment in the first five months of this year, official data showed on Monday.

During the January-May period, China's central SOEs invested 1.7 trillion yuan (about 235.6 billion U.S. dollars), up 12.5 percent from the same period last year, according to the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) of the State Council.

The total fixed-asset investment, excluding real estate, by those enterprises rose 20.4 percent year on year to 1 trillion yuan during the first five months, said the SASAC.

In May alone, total investment by China's central SOEs stood at 380 billion yuan, up 19.6 percent from a year ago, it added.