JAKARTA, Jan. 30 (Xinhua) -- PT Bank Rakyat Indonesia, the country's largest lender in term of asset, logged an 11.6 percent growth to 32.4 trillion rupiah (some 2.30 billion U.S. dollars) in net profit in 2018 as loan growth drifted higher amid edging off bad loan, top official of the lender said here on Wednesday.

President Director of PT Bank Rakyat Indonesia Suprajarto said that credit grew a 14.1 percent to 843.6 trillion rupiah (equal to 56.78 billion U.S. dollars) last year with non-performing loan ticking down to a 2.27 percent.

Most of the total loan was distributed to small and medium business sectors, he said.

In addition to loan growth and ticking down of bad loan, the director said that improving in business efficiency also factored to the hike of the net profit, which was indicated by a 0.7 percent decline of operational cost to operation revenue last year.

Loan growth in Indonesia accelerated at a faster pace last year as financial stability commenced recovery, paring down risks of hawkish policy of U.S. Fed. Reserve.

Banking credit growth touched an 11.75 percent last year, significantly faster than that of a 8.24 percent in the presiding year, according to data from Indonesian Financial Services Authority (OJK).

The robust growth is looked to persist this year as the country's central bank has recently signaled to end its long tightening cycle it applied from May to November of last year to pare down capital outflows.

The central bank took the stance after the U.S. Federal Reserve announced a dovish tone for this year.

The Southeast Asia's biggest economy is looked to accelerated at a faster pace last year, a 5.14 percent from a 5.07 percent in the previous year.