BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) -Agricultural Bank of China Ltd (AgBank) reported a 1.63% fall in first-quarter net profit on Monday, due to shrinking profitability amid sluggish loan demand.

Net profit for the three months ended March totalled 70.39 billion yuan ($9.71 billion), compared with 71.55 billion yuan in the same period of 2023, AgBank said in a filing.

Chinese banks are confronting shrinking profitability as Beijing has urged state lenders to provide cheaper loans to boost the economy, while loan demand remains weak.

The bank's net interest margin - a key gauge of profitability - was 1.44% at the end of March, shrinking from 1.6% at the end of last year.

The non-performing loan ratio was 1.32% at the end of March, remaining steady from 1.33% at the end of December 2023.

($1 = 7.2461 Chinese yuan)

(Reporting by Ziyi Tang and Engen Tham, Editing by Louise Heavens and Jacqueline Wong)