China's state-owned enterprises (SOEs) posted increased revenue in the first quarter of this year (Q1), according to official data released Monday.

These SOEs generated 19.81 trillion yuan (about 2.79 trillion U.S. dollars) in operating revenue in Q1, up 3.2 percent from a year earlier, data from the Ministry of Finance showed.

The combined profits of SOEs increased 2.8 percent year on year to 1.08 trillion yuan in the first three months, the ministry said.

SOEs saw their debt-to-asset ratio reach 65 percent as of the end of March, up 0.3 percentage points from the previous year, according to the ministry.

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