BEIJING, Aug. 4 -- HSBC Monday said its first-half net profit slumped 57 percent to 3.35 billion US dollars as impairment charges and other credit provisions soared by 39 percent to 13.9 billion in the six months to June, compared with the figure in the same period of last year.

    By region, all markets were profitable except the United States, where the pre-tax loss widened to 3.7 billion US dollars from 2.89 billion U.S. dollars a year earlier.

    Soundbite: Stephen Green, Chairman of HSBC "We strengthened our position in faster growing markets, for example, in China, where we are the leading international bank, with the value of our investment rose by 8 billion dollars in the half, where we continue to open new branches, launched rural banks, and introduced new RMB services. Elsewhere in the region, we doubled our presence in Indonesia, with the first foreign bank to incorporate locally in Vietnam."

    The bank was cautiously optimistic on economic prospects.

    Green said the globe may have passed, or is about to pass, the bottom of the cycle in the financial markets. However, the timing, shape and scale of any recovery in the wider economy remains highly uncertain

    The bank also remarked its Tier 1 capital ratio, a key measure of balance sheet strength, improved to 10.1 percent at the end of June, up from 8.3 percent at the end of December, helped by the bank's 12.5 billion pounds rights issue in April.

    Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Hong Kong. (XHTV)