Siemens, Europe’s largest engineering company, in a press release on Tuesday said that despite a revenue decline of 12%, economic first-quarter profit rose 24% to 1.53 billion Euros ($2.15 billion) from 1.23 billion Euros.

Siemens, profit included "expected contraction in industrial and energy infrastructure markets that typically lag macroeconomic cycles." Siemens AG, reported the highest quarterly profit in more than two years as it has cut workers and lowered administrative expenses.

Munich-based Siemens said in a statement that operating earnings at the main industry, energy, and health care unit (sector profits as they call it )rose 11 percent to 2.26 billion Euros ($3.2 billion), beating the mean of 1.82 billion Euros. Net income in the quarter ended Dec. 31 rose 23 percent to 1.48 billion Euros.

Chief Executive Officer Peter Loescher stated, “The actions we took at a very early stage are now cushioning us from the ongoing repercussions of the global recession”.

Siemens’ shares gained 22 percent in value last year. The company products include high-speed trains and gas-fired turbines and employed 402,000 people at the end of the year. Siemens said it expects a mid-single-digit percentage decline in organic revenue in fiscal 2010 "due to the stabilizing effect of strong order backlog after a decline in orders in fiscal 2009.