Absa reports a 5% increase in profits

Absa Group Ltd on Tuesday reported a 5% rise in first-half profit, they managed to grow their core retail business which contributes over half of its earnings this happened despite the slow growth in the local economy.

Absa said that their good performance came from higher non-interest income which included banking fees and strong growth in everyday banking and car finance this grew loans from R26 million to R122 million.

Absa reported headline earnings per share rose 5% to 918.4 cents ($0.6019) for the first half of the year, against 877.8 cents in 2018, the bank has been trying to win back ground lost when they were under the stewardship of Barclays which they split in 2017.

Growth in its operations outside of South Africa which grew by 8%, their results for their corporate and investment bank looked a lot different with earnings falling by 10%.