OSLO (Reuters) – DNB, Norway’s largest bank, on Thursday became the latest Nordic bank to report a jump in third-quarter profits due to rising interest rates, in line with forecasts.
Net profit rose to 7.6 billion crowns ($717.3 million) for the July-to-September quarter from 6.9 billion a year earlier, in line with the 7.7 billion expected by 12 analysts in a poll compiled by the bank.
On Wednesday, Nordic peer Handelsbanken reported forecast-beating record earnings as interest income jumped, while rival Nordea, the region’s largest bank, on Thursday also posted stronger than expected profits.
“The result shows that the level of activity in the Norwegian economy remained high in the third quarter,” DNB said in the statement.
“At the same time, there were indications that the central bank’s monetary policy was helping to cool down the economy.”
The Norwegian central bank was the first major central bank to begin hiking rates in September 2021 and expects to raise rates from their current level of 2.25% in the coming months.
The Norwegian mainland economy is expected to grow up by 2.8% this year before contracting by 0.3% next year, according to central bank forecasts, while core inflation is forecast at 3.7% this year and 4.8% next year.
Shares in DNB are down 11.7% over the past year, lagging an Oslo benchmark index down 6.1% in the same period.
(Reporting by Gwladys Fouche, editing by Terje Solsvik)
