NAIROBI, Nov 22 (Reuters) - Barclays Bank of Kenya has posted a 2 percent decline in nine-month pretax profit to9.10 billion shillings ($105.5 million), curbed by a fall innon-interest income.
The lender, which is controlled by Britain's Barclays, bucked the trend among big banks in the east Africannation, who have posted single- to double-digit growth inearnings for the period.
The increased profitability for the other banks was mainlydriven by a drop in interest rates, which boosted demand forloans and cut interest expenses on deposits, as well as goodperformances in regional subsidiaries such as Rwanda.
Barclays Kenya said in a statement on Friday its netinterest income went up by 4 percent to 14.04 billion shillingsbut the gain was offset by a 2 percent fall in non-interestincome and a slight jump in costs.
Earnings per share inched up to 1.15 shillings from 1.03shillings in the year-ago period, the bank said.