Barclays beats profit expectations, warns of tough times ahead

Barclays on Friday reported stronger than expected third-quarter earnings, as its consumer businesses swung back to profit and bad loan provisions fell, but the bank also warned of a worsening economic outlook. Barclays is the first major British bank to report third- quarter earnings, with analysts and investors watching closely for signs of the expected wave of bad loans linked to the pandemic. Barclays reported profit before tax of 1.1 billion pounds ($1.44 billion) for the July-September period, double the 507 million pounds average of analysts' forecasts.