Barclays welcomes signs of economic recovery as profits soar

Barclays' pre-tax profit for Q1 soared by 47% on the same period last year to £1.82bn, helped by a reduction in bad debts.

The banking giant said there were signs the economic recovery had started as its underlying profit, excluding gains on acquisition and disposals, rose a huge 90%. Its strengthened investment banking unit continued to perform strongly with profit before tax up 47% to £1.47bn. Retail banking also made a big contribution to the profit rise, up 20% to £238m. However, this included a £71m profit on the acquisition of Standard Life Bank.