US bank Citigroup has reported a 32% drop in profits in the first quarter of this year. The bank, the third largest in the US, lost less money on bad loans but struggled to grow its business.
Citigroup said it earned $3 billion, or 10 cents per share, down from $4.4 billion, or 15 cents per share, a year earlier. Analysts on average had expected nine cents per share.
It is the fifth consecutive quarterly profit for Citigroup, which is slowly recovering after taking $45 billion in US bail-outs during the financial crisis.
By the end of 2010, the government had shed its ordinary shares in Citigroup, and the bank reported its first annual profit since 2007.
