Non-performing loans at China’s big four banks — Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Bank of China, China Construction Bank, and Agricultural Bank of China — jumped 10.4% in 2023, from 1.117 trillion Chinese yuan, about $155 billion, in 2022 to 1.23 trillion yuan.
This is according to a Nikkei analysis based on the companies’ earnings, which were released this week.
The banks were all profitable last year, but their margins are being increasingly pressured by the fallout from China’s real-estate debt crisis.