BEIJING - Chinese commercial banks are likely to see their net profits grow by around 10 percent in the third and fourth quarters of 2021, boosted by the stability brought about by economic recovery, forecast the Bank of China Research Institute in a recent report.

Since the third quarter of the year, commercial banks continued to improve their balance sheets and focused on the transition from expanding scale to enhancing quality, with operating performance steadily improving, the report noted.

For the fourth quarter, the banking sector is likely to see its business scale maintain fast growth, said the report. Meanwhile, financial resources will flow into more key areas and weak links, supporting small and micro enterprises, rural vitalization, manufacturing, technological innovation and green development.

In terms of asset quality, the report predicted that the bad loan ratio of commercial banks will fall on a yearly basis, while outstanding bad loans will slightly increase.

Striking a cautious note, the report pointed out that clients from the real estate, low-end manufacturing as well as wholesale and retail sectors are likely to put pressure on the asset quality of the banks.