Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the world's largest bank by market value, said on Thursday its first-quarter net profit rose 29.5 percent on expanded margins following two interest rate hikes in the quarter. ICBC recorded a 53.79 billion yuan ($8.3 billion) profit for the January-March quarter, up from 41.5 billion yuan a year earlier.
That beat the 51 billion yuan average estimate of seven analysts surveyed by Reuters. The Chinese government has been trying to limit the amount of capital available to banks for lending, to cool down the economy and help tame persistent inflation. But demand for credit remains high, and banks have been growing their loan books.
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