ATHENS (Reuters) - National Bank, Greece's second-largest lender by market value, on Tuesday posted a 28% drop in earnings for the first quarter on lower trading income and one-off items.

NBG, 40 percent-owned by the country's HFSF bank rescue fund, said net profit stood at 260 million euros ($286.21 million) in the first quarter, down from 360 million euros in the same period last year.

The bank booked gains of 50 million euros from trading income versus gains of 120 million euros in the first quarter of 2022.

Net interest income grew by 73% year-on-year over the January to March period to 497 million euros, benefiting from a series of rate hikes by the European Central Bank over the past year.

Provisions for impaired loans were unchanged at 56 million euros with so-called non-performing exposures (NPE) declining to 5.2% of the bank's loan book in March from 6.7% in the same month last year.

Greek banks have reduced a pile of non-performing credit, the legacy of a decade-long financial crisis that shrank Greece's economy by a quarter.

($1 = 0.9084 euros)

(Reporting by Lefteris Papadimas, editing by Deepa Babington)