Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the country's biggest lender, forecast its net profit has risen more than 50 percent in the first quarter from a year ago.

The growth came on strong increases in interest earnings and fee incomes, the state-owned bank said in a statement to the Shanghai Stock Exchange on Thursday.

Net profit was 18.7 billion yuan (2.7 billion U.S. dollars), or0.06 yuan per share, in the first quarter of last year, according to the statement.

The bank said on March 25 its net profit jumped 66.4 percent to81.3 billion yuan (11.6 billion U.S. dollars), or 0.24 yuan per share, in 2007. Meanwhile, revenue was up 40.6 percent to 254 billion yuan.

Net interest income rose 37.3 percent to 224.5 billion yuan, accounting for 88.3 percent of the total revenue last year. The rapid growth came on greater demands for loans and wider interest rate margins. The net rate margin increased 35 basis points to 2.67 percent last year.

Total assets were up 15.6 percent to 8.68 trillion yuan by the end of 2007. Outstanding loans expanded 12.2 percent to 4.07 trillion yuan and outstanding deposits rose 13.9 percent to 7.63 trillion yuan, it said.

By the end of last year, the non-performing loans ratio dropped to 2.74 percent from 3.79 percent a year ago. The capital adequacy ratio fell to 13.09 percent from 14.05 percent.

ICBC's shares rose 2.83 percent to 6.18 yuan on Thursday in Shanghai.

(Xinhua News Agency April 11, 2008)