BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China's Bank of Communications Co Ltd (BoCom), reported a 1.44% rise in first-quarter net profit amid a slowing economy.

BoCom, the first among five of the nation's biggest state banks reporting first-quarter results, booked a net profit of 24.99 billion yuan ($3.45 billion) in the three months ended March, up from 24.63 billion yuan in the same period last year, the bank said in a filing on Friday.

China's lenders face shrinking profitability as they are urged to reduce interest rates on loans to help bolster flagging sectors as lending demand falls.

The bank's net interest margin (NIM) - a key gauge of profitability - was 1.27% at the end of March versus 1.28% at the end of December last year.

Its non-performing loan (NPL) ratio was 1.32% at the end of March versus 1.33% at the end of last year.

($1 = 7.2463 Chinese yuan renminbi)

(Reporting by Ziyi Tang and Engen Tham; editing by Christina Fincher and Jason Neely)