* Nonperforming loans, provisions grow
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ALMATY, June 25 (Reuters) - Kazakh bank Kazkommertsbank posted a 70 percent fall in first-quarter net profit to $33 million, as it built up provisions against bad loans.
The provisioning rate grew to 13.2 percent of gross loans by the end of the first quarter from 11.9 percent at the beginning of this year, Kazkommertsbank said in a statement on Thursday.
Non-performing loans grew to 12.2 percent of loan book from 8.1 percent during the same period. Assets shrank 7.3 percent in dollar terms following the devaluation of the local tenge currency by about 18 percent in February.
Kazakh banks had expanded agressively before the global crisis but the economic slowdown has hit their asset quality and, for some banks, their ability to repay foreign debt amassed during the previous years. (Writing by Olzhas Auyezov; Editing by Dan Lalor)