HONG KONG: Bank of China, one of China's "Big Four" lenders, said Wednesday its first-half net profit jumped 29 percent compared to a year earlier, boosted by growth in lending income and fee-based business.
The firm, China's fourth largest bank by assets, earned 66.51 billion yuan ($10.41 billion) in the first six months of the year, up from 52.02 billion yuan a year ago, it said in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange.
The result was above the average 65.46 billion yuan forecast in a poll of eight analysts by Dow Jones Newswires.
Net interest income rose 20 percent to 110.22 billion yuan while non-interest income -- including wealth-management product sales plus net fee and commission income -- increased 36 percent to 55.76 billion yuan.
"Due to the influence of international financial crisis, the recovery of global economy became more difficult than expected," the bank said.
"China's economic and financial development, while in line with macro expectations, will nevertheless be confronted with a complex environment."
The bank's shares in Hong Kong closed down 2.27 percent at HK$3.01 (39 US cents) on Wednesday.
Lending growth of Chinese banks has slowed since China introduced a slew of measures to rein in liquidity to fight inflation, which hit the highest level in three years at 6.5 percent in July.
The central bank raised its benchmark interest rates twice in the first half of the year and the amount of money banks must keep in reserve with the central bank six times.
Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011
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