China banks bid farewell to high profit growth  

中國銀行業利潤告別“高增長”

中國規模最大的商業銀行中國工商銀行30日晚公布2012年上半年度業績，按照國際財務報告準則，工行上半年實現凈利潤1232.41億元人民幣，蟬聯“全球最賺錢銀行”；總資產達17.07萬億元(約合2.7萬億美元)，在中國商業銀行中穩居第一位。

Beijing (CNS) -- The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the world's largest bank by market value, secured its title as the most profitable bank globally by earning a net profit of 123.24 billion yuan in the first half of this year, according to its interim results released Thursday.

However, only three of the 16 listed Chinese banks saw year-on-year profit growth above 40 percent in the first half.

Financing relies on the economy, so it is normal for the banking sector to have weak profit growth, since China's economy has slowed down considerably, said ICBC President Yang Kaisheng.

The four state-owned banks, ICBC, Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China and China Construction Bank, have all experienced slowdowns in net profit growth. ICBC and BOC have also seen a rise in non-performing loans.