Glonghui, December 4 | Citibank published a report to update its forecast for the Bank of East Asia to reflect the latest market trends. It believes that the deterioration of the mainland's commercial real estate industry will affect the bank's asset quality and delay the improvement of credit costs. For the three-year period from this year to 2025, the credit cost forecast will be raised by 94, 79 and 54 basis points respectively. As a result, earnings per share were lowered by 4% to 17% during the period, and the target price was lowered from HK$13 to HK$11.3. Maintaining the “buy” rating to reflect its low valuation and attractive dividend ratio, it believes that potential buy-back may support Stock price performance. The bank believes that the risks of a downturn in East Asia include interest rates falling faster than expected, affecting net interest spreads; increased loan losses involving domestic housing exposure; and deterioration in the quality of online consumer credit assets.