Agricultural Bank of China Ltd (AgBank), the country's third largest lender by assets, reported on Thursday a 13.1% rise in its net profit for the fourth quarter.

AgBank's net profit for October to December rose to 61.6 billion yuan ($8.95 billion) from 54.5 billion yuan a year ago, the bank said in a filing.

Full-year profit increased 7.4% to 259.1 billion yuan, above a Refinitiv estimate of 243.7 billion yuan drawn from 18 analysts.

($1 = 6.8816 Chinese yuan renminbi) (Reporting by Ziyi Tang and Engen Tham; Editing by Jan Harvey)