ICBC net profits rose 5 percent

SHANGHAI: The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the country´s biggest lender, eked out a five percent gain in net profit last year in the face of “complex” domestic and overseas environments, it said Thursday.
Net profit was 275.81 billion yuan ($45.21 billion) in 2014, up from 262.65 billion yuan a year earlier, ICBC said in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange, where it is listed.
The bank cited China´s slowing economic growth and a rebound in bad debts as having an impact on its operations.
The country´s gross domestic product growth of 7.4 percent last year was the slowest in nearly a quarter of a century, prompting the government to loosen monetary policy by cutting interest rates in November.
“We conquered many difficulties such as narrowing interest spread as a result of interest rate liberalisation, drainage of traditional business... and increasing market competition and increasing loss of financial resources due to rebounding NPLs,” the bank said, referring to non-performing loans. The bank´s NPL ratio reached 1.13 percent by end-December, up from 0.94 percent a year earlier, according to the statement, due to slowing economic growth and the “pain” of economic restructuring.