Asset quality of nation's major State-owned lenders improves in first half

The asset quality of China's large State-owned commercial banks continued to improve during the first six months of this year, and proved to be a crucial factor in their profit growth during the same period.

As of June 30, the non-performing loan balance of Agricultural Bank of China Ltd declined by 8.1 billion yuan ($1.2 billion) from the beginning of this year to 185.9 billion yuan. Its NPL ratio dropped by 19 basis points to 1.62 percent.

The NPL ratio of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd, China Construction Bank Corp, and Bank of China Ltd also fell by 1 basis point, 1 basis point and 2 basis points respectively.