BEIJING/SINGAPORE - China’s five biggest state-owned banks posted a modest growth in quarterly profit as policymakers pushed them to make more loans, but the results still missed expectations amid the lingering impact of an economic slowdown.
March data, however, suggests the economy may be starting to bottom out, buoyed by stimulus measures ranging from higher infrastructure spending to massive corporate tax cuts. Bank of Communications , the fifth-largest in China, booked its fastest quarterly growth in five years with a 4.9 percent rise to 21.07 billion yuan.
Smaller, private firms are considered higher credit risks than state-backed firms and more vulnerable to cyclical downturns. But the “front-loading” of loans during the quarter, with some hitting 40 percent of their annual targets, squeezed interest margins at some lenders, said Richard Xu, Morgan Stanley’s China banking analyst.
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