Due to the improvement in the pandemic, the recovery of China's economic growth last year, and the relatively low base of the previous year, the banking industry performance in 2021 will generally show relatively rapid growth. However, due to different regions and operational focuses, there will also be profit differentiation among banks. Recently, policies aimed at "ensuring growth" have been continuously introduced, which may continue to support the increase in bank profits in 2022. Nonetheless, it is expected that the banking industry will return to single-digit steady growth.
Recently, the banking sector has been rising consecutively. On January 11, the banking sector continued to rise overall, with 31 out of 40 listed banks seeing their stock prices increase, among which the Bank Of Chengdu had the highest rise at 5.09%. Both Industrial Bank and Bank Of Jiangsu, which have released performance reports, saw increases of over 3%.
The most recent case of banks achieving a net income growth rate exceeding 30% occurred in 2017, when the Bank Of Chengdu achieved a net income growth rate of 51.64%. The last time the banking industry saw overall growth rates exceed 20% was about 9 years ago.
On Tuesday, Powell stated during a two-and-a-half-hour confirmation hearing that the Federal Reserve is on the path to begin raising interest rates from near-zero levels and reducing its massive $8.8 trillion balance sheet. If the Federal Reserve sees inflation persisting longer than expected, it will have to further raise interest rates over time.
On the sensitive topic of tapering currently affecting the market, Powell noted that the economic situation in the USA is much stronger than it was during the last tapering.