SKOPJE (North Macedonia), August 2 (SeeNews) - North Macedonia-based lender NLB Banka [MSE:TNB] said that its net profit nearly doubled yo 56.7 million denars ($1 million/923,000 euro) in the first half of 2019 from 32.0 million denars in the same period of 2018.

NLB Banka's net interest income fell to 131.8 million denars in the first six months of the year from 135.5 million denars in the comparable period of 2018, the lender said in a bourse filing.

Net fee and commission income rose to 65.6 million denars from 60.4 million denars.

The bank's result was positively impacted by a drop in net non-financial asset impairments to just 512,000 denars in the review period from 51.1 million denars the year before.

Loans and advances to clients other than banks grew to 4.91 billion denars at the end of June from 4.57 billion denars a year earlier, while deposits from clients other than banks increased to 6.81 billion denars from 6.37 billion denars.

NLB Banka's total assets rose to 8.2 billion denars at end-June from 8.0 billion denars a year earlier.

(1 euro = 61.44 denars)