London  - HSBC bank Monday reported a 51-per-cent drop in pre-tax profits to 5 billion dollars in the first half of the current financial year, according to results published in London.

HSBC said the result was due mainly to a rise in bad debt charges of 39 per cent, to 13.9 billion dollars, incurred largely through the bank's consumer lending business in the US - which was hit hard by the credit crunch.

Despite the fall in profits, HSBC said results up to the end of June were better than it expected at the start of the year in an "unprecedented" economic climate.

HSBC chairman Stephen Green said it was likely that "we have passed, or are about to pass" the bottom of the cycle in financial markets.

But he warned that the timing, shape and scale of any recovery in the wider economy remained "highly uncertain." (dpa)