Unleashing hidden potential_ on the road to recovery – China Banking Review 2023 1H

 In the first half of 2023, despite the complex and severe international environment, China‘s economy continued to recover and was generally stable. However, there are new difficulties and challenges such as insufficient domestic demand, operational difficulties for some enterprises and hidden risks in key sectors. The foundation for sustained economic recovery and development still needs to be solid. The banking industry, amongst all, faces these challenges directly and increase efforts to serve the real economy. For listed banks, the profit growth rate slowed down while the total assets maintained growth. The balances of non-performing loan (“NPL”) have shown an upward trend. However, the NPL ratio has dropped from the beginning of the year. The capital adequacy ratio (“CAR”) has shown an overall downward trend. The divergence in banks’ performances has become increasingly obvious.