Indonesian banks profit up by 31 pct in 2011

The profit of Indonesian banks rose by 31 percent to 75.077 trillion rupiah (some 8.31 billion U. S. dollar) last year, indicating the rise of intermediation function of the banks amid fast growing economy, local media quoting a release from the bank reported here on Thursday.
The rise of profit was supported by the operational income that rose to 390,779 trillion rupiah (some 43.25 billion U.S. dollar) in 2011 from that of  350,873 trillion rupiah (about 48.83 billion U.S. dollar) in 2010, detik.com online, one of the biggest portal reported.
The bank said on Feb. 9 that the banking credit in the country grew by 24.5 percent last year. Investment credit expand by 33.2 percent last year, working capital credit 21.4 percent and consumption credit by 24.1 percent, the bank said in a statement. Non performing loan reached below 5 percent and capital adequacy ratio grew farther more than 8 percent, it said.
For this year, the bank forecasts banking credit was going to grow by 23.6 percent, deputy governor of the bank Halim Alamyah has said. “This indicates that the national banking is still optimistic on our economy,” he said.
Indonesia economy expanded by 6.5 percent last year, the highest since 1996, but some prediction said it may accelerate at slower pace this year as the debt crisis in Europe could trim exports from emerging Asia.
The central bank on Feb. 9 unexpectedly trimmed its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points to 5.75 percent after keeping it on hold for two months to spur economic growth amid gloomy global economy. The bank cut rate twice in 2010 by 75 basis points to 6.0 percent to spur economic growth amid the weakening global economy.