Xstrata says profit jumps 86%

Xstrata Plc, the largest exporter of coal used for power, said annual profit surged 86 per cent as rising demand in emerging markets pushed up prices, and forecast lower Asian growth this year.

Net income before exceptional items rose to $5.15 billion from $2.77 billion a year earlier, Zug, Switzerland-based Xstrata said today in a statement. That beat the $5.02 billion average estimate of nine analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

“Developing economies and China in particular appear set to continue to achieve wholly respectable high single-digit growth rates in 2011,” Chief Executive Officer Mick Davis said in the statement. Growth will be below 2010 levels because of inflation and government measures to contain expansion to within “manageable levels,” he said.