Indonesia's BRI says Q1 net profit up 15 pct

JAKARTA, April 29 (Reuters) - Indonesia's third-largest lender, PT Bank Rakyat Indonesia Tbk (BBRI.JK), reported on Tuesday a 15 percent rise in its first-quarter net profit, thanks to strong loan growth at the beginning of the year.

The state bank said its net profit in the January-March period rose to 1.4 trillion rupiah ($151.8 million) from 1.22 trillion rupiah in the same period last year.

Its net interest income climbed 18 percent to 4.7 trillion rupiah, thanks to a 30 percent increase in its outstanding loans to 118.4 trillion rupiah.

Analysts expect BRI, which has a market capitalisation of $7.5 billion, to post a net profit of 6.2 trillion rupiah in 2008, up from 4.84 trillion last year.

Indonesia's banks have been lending aggressively to businesses and consumers, with industry loan growth increasing to 25.5 percent last year from 14 percent in 2006.

Demand for loans has picked up as the central bank steadily cut its benchmark interest rate in response to lower inflation.

BRI's share price has declined by 21 percent since the start of the year, compared to a 16 percent fall in the Indonesia composite index .JKSE and 18 percent drop in the financial sub-index. ($1 = 9,220 rupiah) (Reporting by Nury Sybli, writing by Harry Suhartono, editing by Sugita Katyal)