China's "big four" banks suffered rare profit declines in the first half of the year and its two oil giants posted losses, joining a growing global tide of pandemic-induced red ink.
Bloomberg News said the profit declines -- reported over the weekend -- were the largest in more than a decade for the banks, which are closely supervised by the Chinese government and for years have typically posted slight but steady increases. ICBC, the world's largest lender in terms of assets, and Bank of China both said first-half profit fell around 11 percent, while China Construction Bank and Agricultural Bank of China each reported a decline of around 10 percent.
ICBC also indicated in its report that profit was likely impacted by government-directed initiatives to enlist financial institutions in the national pandemic recovery effort by extending credit to keep the economy steady.