BEIJING, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) -- China Construction Bank Corporation on Sunday reported a 47.5 percent year-on-year increase in its first-half net profit.

For the Jan-June period, the bank's net profit rose to 34.3 billion yuan (4.5 billion US dollars) under international accounting rules, with earnings per share up 50 percent to 0.15 yuan.

By the end of June, the bank's total assets had increased 12.28percent to 6,117.791 billion yuan (804.97 billion U.S. dollars) compared with the end of last year and its non-performing loan ratio decreased 0.34 percentage points to 2.95 percent.

For the first half of 2007, the bank witnessed an extraordinary growth in its intermediary business with the net fee and commission income reaching 12.660 billion yuan (1.67 billion U.S. dollars) from January to June, up 101.79 percent from a year earlier.

As of June 30, the bank's gross loans and advances to customers stood at 3165.567 billion yuan (416.52 U.S. dollars), up 10.2 percent compared with the end of 2006. The net interest margin rose 0.41 percentage points year on year to 3.11 percent.