JEDDAH: Al Rajhi Bank posted a 11 percent drop in its first-quarter net profit, it said on Monday.

The bank made SR1.52 billion ($405.3 million) in the three months ending March 31, compared with SR1.71 billion in the same period a year earlier, it said in a bourse statement.

Nine analysts surveyed by Reuters on average expected the bank to post a net profit of SR1.61 billion for the quarter.

The decrease was the seventh straight drop in quarterly profit posted by the bank, which it attributed to a decrease in total operating income — which fell 2.2 percent year on year to SR3.42 billion — and a rise in total operating expenses.

Loans and advances at the end of March stood at SR205.1 billion, gaining 6.3 percent on the same point of 2014, while deposits rose 11.4 percent to SR265.6 billion over the same period.