BEIJING -- Profits at China's state-owned enterprises have continued a downward trend, declining 12.8 percent year-on-year to 1.38 trillion yuan ($219 billion) in the first eight months of 2012, the Ministry of Finance said Monday.

However the SOEs' combined profits witnessed a rebound on a monthly basis, rising 1.1 percent in August from the July level. This compared with a 11.6 percent drop in July, according to the ministry.

In the Jan-Aug period, China's SOEs saw business revenues up 9.7 percent to 26.8 trillion yuan against the same period last year. In August, their revenues were up 0.8 percent from July, it said.

The profits of centrally administered SOEs slid 9.4 percent from a year earlier to 954.2 billion yuan during January-August, while local government SOEs witnessed profits fall 19.6 percent to 424.9 billion yuan.

On a monthly basis, centrally administered SOEs saw profits down 1 percent in August, while SOEs under local governments reported a 7 percent rise in profits, according to the ministry.

During the January-August period, the tobacco, power, auto and electronic industries saw big profit gains, while the chemicals, nonferrous metals, transportation, petrochemical and construction materials industries experienced steep declines.

The report does not include SOEs in the financial sector.