Malaysia bank CIMB's Q1 profit nearly halves, sees tough year

* Expects consumer spending in Malaysia to moderate

* Indonesia remains a challenge in 2015

* CIMB shares lost 18.6 pct over past one year (Add details of results, forecast)

By Yantoultra Ngui

KUALA LUMPUR, May 20 (Reuters) - Malaysia's CIMB Group Holdings Bhd, Southeast Asia's fifth-biggest bank, forecast more pain in its biggest markets due to a slowing economy after reporting a 45.6 percent drop in first-quarter net profit.

CIMB, Malaysia's second largest bank by assets, is navigating through slowing economic growth and depreciating currencies in the region this year after having aggressively expanded its presence in Southeast Asia over the past decade.

It has embarked on a cost-cutting exercise this year, which is expected to increase its expenses in the short term.

The bank said in a statement on Wednesday that consumer spending in Malaysia was expected to moderate while operations in neighbouring Indonesia remain challenged by near-term asset-quality concerns.

Its net profit for January-March fell to 580.12 million ringgit ($160.59 million) from 1.07 billion ringgit in the same quarter a year earlier, dragged by higher corporate loan provisions in Indonesia, CIMB said.

Revenue rose 4 percent to 3.68 billion ringgit in the quarter from 3.54 billion a year ago.

The bank announced in May it is offering a voluntary option of leaving to its employees in Malaysia and Indonesia, in a bid to improve its operating cost structure and raise efficiency. It has already cut 150 jobs company-wide and said in March that it planned to optimise costs further.

Larger rival Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank) is expected to announce its first-quarter results on May 28.

Shares of CIMB closed 0.2 percent higher, prior to the earnings announcement. They have dropped 18.6 over the past year, underperforming Maybank and the benchmark stock index , which declined 6.4 percent and 4.1 percent, respectively.

For the full statement, please click: http://bit.ly/1PwuaHg ($1 = 3.6125 ringgit) (Additional Reporting by Tripti Kalro in Bengaluru and Al-Zaquan Amer Hamzah at Kuala Lumpur; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)