China Agricultural Bank net profit up 7.9% in 2014

The Agricultural Bank of China, one of the country's "Big Four" state-owned banks, said its net profit rose just 7.9 percent year-on-year in 2014 due to the weak domestic economy.
Net profit was 179.46 billion yuan ($29.22 billion) in 2014, up from 166.32 billion yuan in 2013, the bank said in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange on Tuesday.
"The development of China’s economy... faces multiple difficulties and challenges," the statement said.
China's gross domestic product grew 7.4 percent last year, the slowest in nearly a quarter of a century, prompting the government to loosen monetary policy in an attempt to boost the economy.
"In 2015, fiscal policies will be more intensive and China will maintain prudent monetary policies, which will be more flexible, timely and specific, in order to maintain reasonable and sufficient liquidity in the market," the bank added.
The central People’s Bank of China has cut interest rates twice since November, while also reducing the reserve requirement ratio -- the percentage of funds banks must hold in reserve -- in a bid to increase lending.
Agricultural Bank closed down 2.41 percent in Shanghai and lost 1.053 percent in Hong Kong.
A Chinese court in February sentenced a former vice-president of the bank, Yang Kun, to life in jail for taking bribes totalling 30.8 million yuan.