British bank Barclays sees 2008 profit above forecasts

British bank Barclays said it expected a 2008 pretax profit of more than the 5.3 billion pounds despite writedowns of eight billion pounds due to the financial crisis.

British bank Barclays said on Monday it expected a 2008 pretax profit of more than the 5.3 billion pounds (5.6 billion euros/7.1 billion dollars) despite writedowns of eight billion pounds due to the financial crisis.

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Barclays chairman Marcus Agius and chief executive John Varley said in a statement they would bring forward the announcement of the 2008 results by one week to February 9 because of market pressures in recent days which saw the bank's share price more than halved.

Agius and Varley said Barclays would report a pretax profit "clearly above" the 5.3 billion pounds anticipated by analysts, with the results including all costs and writedowns.