Bank of China : posts 2.7% rise in Q1 profit as economy recovers

BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Bank of China Ltd (BoC), the country's fourth-largest bank by assets, posted on Thursday a 2.7% rise in first-quarter net profit as the economy recovers from the coronavirus pandemic.

BoC, which has the largest global network of branches among Chinese lenders, said net profit for the first three months of 2021 grew to 54 billion yuan ($8.35 billion)from 52.6 billion yuan a year earlier.

($1 = 6.4666 Chinese yuan renminbi)

(Reporting by Cheng Leng, Zhang Yan and Engen Tham; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Edmund Blair)