SAO PAULO, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Brazil's biggest private sector lender Itau Unibanco on Tuesday posted a 7.1% increase in recurring net profit for the last three months of 2022, landing below expectations as it sharply increased provisions for bad credit.

Recurring net income, which excludes one-off items, came in at 7.67 billion reais ($1.47 billion), below the 8.24 billion reais estimated by analysts polled by Refinitiv. ($1 = 5.2123 reais) (Reporting by Peter Frontini Editing by Chris Reese)