Chart of the Week: Chinese banks' NPLs hit US$219b in 2016

It increased 18.7% year-on-year.

According to BBVA Research, the deteriorating trend in asset quality comes to a halt as profitability in certain upstream industries have improved significantly.

"NPLs continue to rise, totaling 1.51 trn (US$219b) RMB as end of 2016, an increase of 18.7% compared to end-2015. Both non-performing loans (NPLs) and a broad measure of NPLs including special mentioned loan ratio registered a quarter-on-quarter decline in Q4 2016, the first time since 2012."