Agricultural Bank sees profit rise

But market-oriented reform to put pressure on net interest margin

Agricultural Bank of China Ltd's net interest income stood at 180 billion yuan ($29.4 billion) in the first half of 2013, up 12.2 billion yuan year-on-year, its executives told a news conference on Wednesday.

Net interest income accounted for 76.3 percent of first-half operating income, they said.

However, the net interest margin contracted by 11 basis points to 2.74 percent.

Vice-President Lou Wenlong said that China's move to market-oriented interest rates would put more pressure on the bank's NIM.

The bank will continue to monitor the indicator, making it a key aspect of performance evaluations at its branches. ABC will also focus on reducing high-cost debt and restructuring its assets by lending to high-yielding projects.

Lou expressed confidence that the NIM will be kept at the same level in the current half-year.

Net profit stood at 92.4 billion yuan, up 14.7 percent year-on-year, the fastest rate of growth among the major banks that have released interim results.

China Construction Bank Corp's net profit was up 12.65 percent, while that of Bank of Communications Ltd increased 12 percent.