SHANGHAI/HONG KONG: China Construction Bank Corp (CCB) posted a lower-than-expected increase in second-quarter profit, with rising levels of bad loans, joining peers who have suffered from the country's slowing economic growth.
Net profit at the country's second-biggest lender rose 7.9 percent to 64.9 billion yuan ($10.56 billion) in the quarter, according to a Reuters calculation from company figures.
Profit for the first half was 130.7 billion yuan, below the average forecast in Reuters poll of analysts of 131.3 billion yuan for the January-June period.
CCB is the last of China's top five banks to file earnings for the first half, with all of them reporting slowing profit growth and rising bad loans.
Its non-performing loan ratio had increased to 1.04 percent by the end of June, from 1.02 percent at the end of March.
China's bad loan levels were at 1.08 percent at the end of June, according to official data, the highest ratio since 2011. In response Chinese lenders have implemented measures including tightening loan criteria, selling off bad debts, and cutting loans to struggling industries such as shipbuilding.
CCB's shares have fallen 1.5 percent this year in Hong Kong, compared with a 6 percent rise in the benchmark Hang Seng index . CCB executives will hold news conferences in Beijing and Hong Kong on Monday to discuss the bank's earnings.
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