Commercial Bank of Kuwait (CBK) posted a 65 percent fall in its third-quarter net profit, after booking provisions against loan and investment portfolios, it said on Wednesday, but the results came in better than analysts forecasts.

Net income in the three months to September 30 was 6.8 million dinars ($24.6 million), compared with net profit of 19.6 million dinars in the year-earlier period, the lender said in a statement on the Kuwaiti bourse website.

The results however beat average analysts forecasts of 5.73 million dinars in a Reuters poll.

CBK said it made a net profit of 8.3 million dinars in the first nine months of the year.

"The downward trend is still predominating the performance of Kuwait economy as a result of weak government spending, sluggish performance of KSE (stock market) and related negative impact on assets values," CBK's chairman Ali Al-Awadhi said in the statement.     
The bank made an operating profit before provisions of 78.9 million dinars in the first nine months of the year, CBK said in a separate statement on Wednesday.

The lender's total assets for the first nine months of the year came in at 3.75 billion dinars, up from 3.64 billion dinars in the year earlier period, while shareholders equity for the period was 539.9 million dinars, it said. - Reuters