China banks bid farewell to high profit growth  

中国银行业利润告别“高增长”

中国规模最大的商业银行中国工商银行30日晚公布2012年上半年度业绩，按照国际财务报告准则，工行上半年实现净利润1232.41亿元人民币，蝉联“全球最赚钱银行”；总资产达17.07万亿元(约合2.7万亿美元)，在中国商业银行中稳居第一位。

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.