China's centrally-administered state-owned enterprises (SOEs) reported net profits of 181.37 billion yuan (28.77 billion U.S. dollars) in the first quarter, down 13.6% year on year, the country's SOE regulator said Friday.

The drop was attributed to the sluggish world economy cutting into the profitability of centrally-administered SOEs with close ties to international markets, the State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council said in a statement on its website.

"But judging from the general business situations of central SOEs, operations in March saw an obvious turnaround, as net profits surged 50.6% month on month to 82.6 billion yuan," the statement said.

In the first quarter, the total revenue of central SOEs grew 12.3% to 5.01 trillion yuan, while taxes and fees rose 18.8% to 487.77 billion yuan, according to the statement.