The banking institutions in China realized 38.75 billion yuan book profits (4.67 billion US dollars)in the first quarter of 2004, up 53.8 percent over the same period of 2003, according to the statistics released by the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC).

The CBRC's statistics show that the book profits of state-owned commercial banks hit 23.66 billion yuan (2.85 billion US dollars) in the quarter, up 43 percent over the same period of last year. Meanwhile, the profits of stockholding commercial banks and city commercial banks reach 8.52 billion yuan (1.03 billion US dollars)and 1.46 billion yuan (175.9 million US dollars), up 74.2 percent and 17.2 percent respectively.

By the end of the quarter, the total currency asset of China's banking institutions reached 28,840 billion yuan (3474.7 billion US dollars), up 17.3 percent over the same 2003 period. The total currency asset of stockholding commercial banks increased by 34.3 percent to 4.09 trillion yuan (492.8 billion US dollars), enjoyingthe fastest growth rate among all kinds of banks.

Meanwhile, the total currency debt reach 27.76 trillion yuan (3344.58 billion US dollars), up 17.7 percent over the same 2003 period, 1.5 percentage faster the growth rate of the previous sameperiod.

Source: Xinhua