The China Construction Bank (CCB) said Friday that its first-half net profit dropped 4.86 percent from a year earlier to 55.8 billion yuan (8.17 billion U.S. dollars).

CCB attributed the decrease to falling net interest income as the net interest margin narrowed because of the interest rate cuts of the People's Bank of China, the central bank.

The company's net interest income fell 7.75 percent year on year to 102.47 billion yuan in the first six months this year, it said in the semi-annual report to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Total assets of the bank amounted to 9.11 trillion yuan by June, an increase of 20.58 percent from the same period last year.

The non-performing rate was 1.71 percent at the end of June, 0.5 percentage point lower than the end of last year, as outstanding non-performing loans decreased by 6.67 billion yuan to 77.21 billion yuan after the bank improved risk monitoring.

(Xinhua News Agency August 22, 2009)