China banks’ profits set to soar

Chinese banks will announce record profits for 2007 in the coming weeks in contrast with their global counterparts, which have been forced into large write-offs in the wake of the credit crisis.
But 2008 will be much more challenging as a global slowdown spills over into China and the government attempts to cool the economy and head off rising inflation.
Some of the country's biggest banks, including Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Bank of Communications, have already said their earnings rose by more than 60 per cent year-on-year in 2007 and analysts say net profits for the industry grew by a similar amount.
Estimates published in domestic media put pre-tax profits for all domestic banks at Rmb610bn ($85.4bn), an 83 per cent increase from a year earlier, although analysts said it was hard to confirm the figure before annual reports have been released.©ft