May 15 (SeeNews) - Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) said on Tuesday the after-tax profit of its Bulgarian unit fell to 9 million euro ($10.7 million) in the first quarter of 2018, from 17 million euro in the same quarter last year.
RBI’s net interest income in Bulgaria fell to 25 million euro in January-March period from 26 million euro in the same period last year, figures from RBI’s quarterly financial report showed.
Net fee and commission income increased to 11 million euro, from 10 million euro in the same period last year.
The bank's general administrative expenses rose to 24 million euro in the review period, from 23 million euro in the same period last year.
The non-performing loan (NPL) ratio RBI’s Bulgarian unit decreased 4% at the end of the first quarter of 2018, from 5.6% at the end of the same period last year.
RBI also said in the report that it sees Bulgarian economy growing by 4.0% in 2018, and growing by 3.8% in 2019.
The bank sees South East European (SEE) region economic growth slowing from 5% in 2017 to 4.1% in 2018 and 3.3% in 2019. The report's SEE region includes seven countries - Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Romania and Serbia.
($ = 0.8406 euro)