China Construction Bank net profits climbs 6%

China Construction Bank, the nation's second largest lender by assets, said its net profit rose six percent in 2014 from a year earlier, as interest income rose. Net profit for 2014 was 227.83 billion yuan ($36.69 billion), up from 214.66 billion yuan in 2013, it said in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange on Friday. "Net interest yield rose steadily, driven by an increase in net interest income over the previous year," the bank said. China's gross domestic product grew 7.4 percent last year, the slowest pace in nearly a quarter of a century.