IN BRIEF (Page 13)

Economy gives lift to BoComm

Bank of Communications Co Ltd (BoComm), China's fifth-largest bank, said second-quarter profit jumped 32 percent as economic expansion fueled growth in loans and fees.

Net income rose to 13.1 billion yuan ($2.1 billion), or 0.19 yuan a share, from 9.9 billion yuan, or 0.18 yuan, a year earlier, according to a filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Thursday.

Small firms 'get sufficient credit'

Monetary tightening has not caused widespread closures of small and medium-sized enterprises, a central bank official said on Thursday. Some local newspapers and analysts have said that small companies in China are bearing the brunt of official credit curbs, with some being squeezed out of business.

But Wu Xianting, deputy head of the financial markets division at the People's Bank of China, said lending to small businesses has risen more rapidly than lending overall, and operations at small enterprises are generally normal.

Agencies

(China Daily 08/19/2011 page13)