Chinese banks' net?interest margins in the year 2011 were at the middle-level worldwide, the People's Daily reported Friday, citing the central bank.

The net interest margin of China's banking industry was 2.8 percent in 2011, apparently lower than that in any other BRIC countries and lower than the United States and the Republic of Korea, according to the People's Bank of China.

However, the figure measuring the difference between the interest income generated by banks and the amount of interest paid out to their lenders, relative to the amount of their interest-earning assets, was higher than that in Japan and Germany.

The figure of 2.8 percent in 2011 was a little higher than that in 2010 but lower than 2007 (2.9 percent) and 2008 (3 percent), said the report.

China's financial institutions earned 1.25 trillion yuan ($197.84 billion)?in 2011, up by 39.2 percent year-on-year. Among these profits, 1.04 trillion yuan was earned by commercial banks, a year-on-year increase of 36.3 percent.