Indonesia's BII H1 profit up 9 pct on higher loans

JAKARTA, July 27 (Reuters) - PT Bank Internasional Indonesia Tbk (BII) (BNII.JK), the country's sixth-largest lender, reported its net profit rose 9 percent in the first six months of 2008 from a year ago on higher lending and net interest income.

BII President Director Henry Ho said in a statement that domestic inflationary pressures, triggered by higher fuel and commodities prices, could affect the Indonesian economy and banking industry in the second half.

BII's net profit was 316 billion rupiah ($34.66 million) in the first half, compared with 290 billion rupiah in the same period last year, the Jakarta-based bank said in the statement.

Its net interest income rose 16 percent to 1.4 trillion rupiah over the period from 1.2 trillion rupiah a year earlier. Outstanding loans jumped 27 percent to 35.9 trillion rupiah.

Indonesia's central bank has raised its benchmark interest rate BPIG by a total of 75 basis points in the last three months to 8.75 percent as higher fuel and food prices pushed inflation to its highest in nearly two years at 11 percent in June.

Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank) (MBBM.KL) bid $2.7 billion for a 55.5 percent stake in BII in March from Singapore state investor Temasek Holdings [TEM.UL] and South Korea's Kookmin Bank 060000.KS.

The Malaysian bank has said it plans to spend an additional $1.2 billion to buy the rest of the shares.

(Reporting by Karima Anjani, editing by Ed Davies)