Combined profits of China's state-owned enterprises (SOEs) climbed 75.8 percent year on year in the first quarter to 408.82 billion yuan (59.9 billion U.S. dollars), the Ministry of Finance announced Monday.

The growth rate was down 0.2 percentage points from the fourth quarter of last year, said a statement on the ministry's website without elaborating.

Business revenue totalled 6.51 trillion yuan, up 43.2 percent from a year earlier, according to the statement.

It did not provide reasons for the surge in profits and revenues, but analysts attributed it to a low comparison base from the same period of last year when the country was affected by the fallout of the global economic downturn. The economic recovery also helped lift earnings.

The automobile, oil and petrochemical industries continued to see big increases in profits from January to March, the statement said.

The power generation sector returned to profit in the first quarter, said the statement.