(30 April 2007 – China) Bank of China has reported a 17.6 percent increase in its net profit for the first quarter of 2007.Bank of China, which is China’s second biggest lender after Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, delivered earnings of 11.7 billion yuan (US$1.5 billion), up from 9.96 billion yuan a year ago.
Meanwhile, China’s central bank has ordered banks to hold more of their deposits in reserve in a bid to constrain potentially destabilising credit growth.
It is the second time in April that the People’s Bank of China has issued such an order. The Chinese economy as a whole is growing at more than 11 percent.