Net attributable profit fell to 2.1 billion euros ($1.89 billion) from 2.5 billion the year before, with fourth-quarter net profit almost halved, to 515.8 million euros.
Net attributable profit rose 21percentto to 1.99 billion euros, for the first nine months of 2001, below the 30percentt gain predicted by analysts.
Xstrata, a rival, posted a 23% fall in attributable profit, to $2.2 billion, also in part because of the downturn in commodity prices.Meanwhile, BHP Billiton took a write-down of $2.8 billion against shale-gas assets it acquired in America last year.
There have been 17 increases in interest rates in the past two years.BHP Billiton, the world's largest mining company, said attributable profit in the year ended June 30th rose 63%, to $10.45 billion.
The one that got analysts excited was the second-quarter "attributable profit", which came in much better than expected, helped by the fact that some money set aside for bad loans came back to the bank as they turned out better than it had feared.
He said, however, that the declines in the Dow industrials were more likely attributable to profit-taking after the market's recent gains.
But he said the declines in the Dow were more likely attributable to profit-taking after the market's recent gains.
Imagine if profit statements included the costs of illness attributable to the profits.
Meanwhile Xstrata's net profits attributable to shareholders dropped 90% to $1.2bn.
