JAKARTA, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia's largest bank by asset, PT Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI), has forecast its loan growth would accelerate at a faster pace this year amid rising credits on small-and-medium enterprises (SMEs).
The state-owned lender forecast its loan growth was expected to nudge higher by 10 to 11 percent this year from 8.3 percent last year, BRI's President Director Sunarso said on Friday.
The director cited that the lender's loans expanded to 907.4 trillion rupiahs (about 66.42 billion U.S. dollars) last year.
"This year our focus is on the small-and-medium enterprises. We will spur the loan growth in the sector at a faster pace," he said.
Sunarso pointed out that the lender will ratchet up loans allocated to the SMEs to 80 percent this year from 78 percent last year.
The hike of loan growth for the SMEs last year primarily contributed to the rise of net profit growth of 6.15 percent to 34.41 trillion rupiahs (about 2.53 billion U.S. dollars), partly rising the amount of asset to 1,418.95 trillion rupiahs (about 104.14 billion U.S. dollars), according to the bank.
The BRI aggressively cut down its benchmark interest rate by 100 basis points last year to help shore up loan disbursement.
