BEIJING, Aug. 11-- Assets entrusted to the 68 Chinese trust management firms hit 12.48 trillion yuan (2.05 trillion U.S. dollars) at the end of June, up 14.4 percent from the beginning of the year, said the Chinese Trustee Association (CTA) on Monday.

Quarter-on-quarter assets growth rate was 6.4 percent in the second quarter, 1.12 percentage points lower than that in the first quarter, according to the CTA.

Profits from the trust management firms was 28.97 billion yuan at the end of June, up 12.39 percent year on year, but the growth rate was lower than the 35.69-percent year-on-year growth rate at the end June in 2013.

The growth rate in the trust sector has been slowing down since 2013 and the slow-down continued in the second quarter this year, said Zhou Xiaoming, an analyst with the CTA.

Zhou attributed the slow-down to the overall economic downward pressure and increased competition in the trust sector.