Banco Macro sees economic rebound in '09

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Banco Macro (BMA.BA) (BMA.N), one of Argentina's biggest banks, saw its first-quarter profit rise slightly from a year ago despite a slowing economy, the bank's chief executive said on Thursday.

"The results will be slightly higher than in the first quarter of last year," Jorge Brito told the Reuters Latin American Investment Summit in Buenos Aires, before the company reported its quarterly earnings to the stock exchange.

"Fortunately the bank continues to have a brisk level of activity despite what has happened in the world and ... (despite) Argentina's slowdown," he added.

Banco Macro posted a first-quarter net profit of 151.6 million pesos, or $47.5 million, last year.

Brito said the bank aims to keep deposits stable over the course of the year while increasing its loan portfolio by 2 percent, focusing on small- and medium-sized businesses as well as the powerful farm sector.

Banco Macro expects Argentina -- Latin America's No. 3 economy -- to grow between 0 percent and 2 percent this year, slowing sharply after six straight years of at least 7 percent growth.

But Brito said conditions could improve starting in the second half of the year, particularly after a June 28 mid-term election in which President Cristina Fernandez will try to hold onto her congressional majority.

"My impression is that after the election, the Argentine economy could stabilize or start growing again," he said. "I'm not worried about the outcome of the election, whatever the outcome it won't affect the economy."

An economic rebound should serve to stem the decline in overall bank deposits seen since March 2008 and reinvigorate slack demand for credit, he added.

Banco Macro's deposits totaled some 16.5 billion pesos by the end of the first quarter, while its loan portfolio hovered near 11 billion pesos. The bank employs some 8,000 workers nationwide.

Its delinquency rate on loans has risen by 1 percentage point since March of last year, when farmer protests against export taxes began sparking capital outflows. But it is still only 3 percent, which Brito described as low.

Argentina's banking system has remained largely unshaken by the global financial crisis, mainly because total lending hovers near 11 percent of gross domestic product -- much lower than in neighboring countries such as Chile and Brazil.