Beijing / Bloomberg China’s biggest bank ICBC on Thursday announced mounting problem loans, after International Monetary Fund staff argued that the world’s second-biggest economy needs a more “comprehensive” plan to tackle bad debts The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), believed to be the world’s largest bank by assets, said its non-performing loan ratio rose to 1.66 percent ...

  Tokyo / AFP All Nippon Airways (ANA) and Japan Airlines (JAL) announced robust annual profits on Thursday, thanks to healthy demand on China and other international routes as well as falling fuel costs. Japan’s top carriers benefitted from a record number of foreigners visiting Japan with mainland Chinese being among the most conspicuous as they flock to Japan for shopping ...

  Tokyo / Bloomberg Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal said on Thursday its annual profit dived by a third as it pointed to a “severely depressed” market owing to a slowdown in China and other overseas markets. The Tokyo-based firm, one of the world’s biggest steelmakers, posted a net profit of 145.4 billion yen in its fiscal year to March, ...