BEIJING (Reuters) -China Construction Bank Corp (CCB), the first of the country’s Big Five lenders to report annual results this week, posted an 8.8% rise in fourth-quarter net profit on Wednesday.
China’s second-biggest lender by assets saw profits rise to 76.6 billion yuan ($11.12 billion) in the October to December period, compared with 70.4 billion yuan a year earlier, the bank said in a filing.
Despite the steady results, the lender warned the country’s economic recovery is not yet on solid ground.
“Mounting pressures of risk prevention and control in key areas have raised higher requirements for commercial banks,” said CCB in the filing.
CCB said interest rate hikes in developed economies continue to have a spillover effect and turmoil in international financial markets has intensified, adding that it has no exposure to battered Silicon Valley Bank and Credit Suisse.   Profit for the full year increased 7.06% to 323.9 billion yuan, compared with a Refinitiv estimate of 314.5 billion yuan drawn from 21 analyst.
The non-performing loan ratio at CCB fell to 1.38% at year-end compared with 1.4% three months ago. The net interest margin, a key gauge of bank profitability, narrowed to 2.02% from 2.05% at end-Sept.
($1 = 6.8870 Chinese yuan renminbi)
(Reporting by Ziyi Tang and Engen Tham; Editing by William Maclean and Jonathan Oatis)
