Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the country’s biggest bank by market capital, on Friday reported a dramatic deceleration in profit growth in the third quarter, setting the tone for the rest of the earnings season.

ICBC’s net profit still grew 25.5 per cent to Rmb28.2bn in the third quarter year-on-year but that was a sharp slowdown from the 57 per cent increase in net profit in the first half and the 77 per cent increase in the first quarter.