Barclays has reported an increase in pre-tax profit at Barclays by 47% to £1.82 billion in the first quarter. This was revealed by the bank prior to its annual general meeting this morning.

It has been stated that loan impairments dropped 35% to £1.5 billion. This is considerable reduction in comparison to the last year, which had been it bad by the recession.

John Varley, the group Chief Executive, said in an interim management statement, “The improvement that we have seen in impairment reflects the signs of economic recovery now evident in many of the markets in which we operate”.

Bad debts decreased 35pc to £1.5bn in the first three months of 2010 in contrast to the same quarter last year.

It was stated that Barclays Capital, which is the investment banking arm of the group can be held responsible for 80pc of group profits.

The earnings at BarCap also saw an increase of 62pc to £1.47bn owing to sturdy trading in fixed income, currencies and commodities.

According to reports, the pre-tax profits, which do not include the income from BGI, were in keeping with the forecast of analysts.