Net profit fell to 68.21 billion yuan ($10.18 billion) in the three months to Sept. 30, from 71.15 billion yuan a year earlier, the bank said in a statement to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

CCB's non-performing loan (NPL) ratio rose to 1.53% at the end of the quarter from 1.49% at the end of June and the bank said it had "prudently made provisions" owing to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Its net interest margin, a key measure of profitability, was 2.13% at the end of September, versus 2.14% three months earlier.

The lender had posted a 26.5% slump in net profit in the second quarter, the biggest fall in more than a decade as it increased buffers for covering souring debt.

China's economic recovery accelerated in the third quarter as consumers shook off their coronavirus caution, with gross domestic product growing 4.9% from a year earlier, faster than the second quarter's 3.2% growth.

($1 = 6.7029 Chinese yuan renminbi)

(Reporting by Zhang Yan and Cheng Leng in Beijing and Engen Tham in Shanghai; Editing by David Goodman, Kirsten Donovan)