JAKARTA, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia's largest state bank in term of asset, Indonesia's People Bank (BRI), posted a net profit growth of 11.57 percent to 7.42 trillion rupiah (about 532.5 million U.S. dollars) on the back of expanding loans throughout the first quarter of this year, the bank's senior executive said here on Thursday.

BRI President Director Suprajarto said the bank managed to disburse 737 trillion rupiah (about 52.8 billion U.S. dollars) during the period, or 12.86 percent higher than 653 trillion rupiah (about 46.8 billion U.S. dollars) in the corresponding period last year.

Part of the loans during the period, amounted 22.3 trillion rupiah (about 1.5 billion U.S. dollars), were delivered to address the government's program called People Business Loan (KUR) aimed at empowering people in starting their own businesses, he said.

That figure was 28.1 percent higher than in the corresponding period last year.

"BRI channeled the KUR loan to more than 1.1 million people throughout the period," he told a press conference in his office here to expose the bank's financial performance.

He expected that some 79.7 trillion rupiah (about 5.7 billion U.S. dollars) of loans can be achieved through the KUR program by the end of this year.

Apart from the KUR loan program, the bank also channeled some 587.7 trillion rupiah (about 42.1 billion U.S. dollars) of loans to micro and small middle enterprises (SMEs) sector in the period.

"The loan portion in micro and SMEs sector has increased to 77.2 percent in the first quarter, higher than 74.4 percent in the same period last year," chief of the state bank originally purposed to finance farming sector and SMEs business activities said.

He expected that loans for the micro and SMEs sector may raise up to 80 percent of loans channeled by the bank throughout the year. The remaining 20 percent would be allocated for corporations and other sectors, he said.

The bank has set overall loan growth target at 12.5 percent this year.

BRI posted a consolidated asset of 1,126.2 trillion rupiah (about 80.7 billion U.S. dollars) last year, making it the state bank with largest asset.