Tesco has announced an 11.3 per cent rise in pre-tax profits from £3.18 billion in 2009/10 to 3.53 billion in the 12 months ending 26 February 2011.

These strong results came despite weaker than anticipated growth in clothing sales in the UK and poor performances in Japan, China and the United States.

Philip Clarke, chief executive of Tesco, said favourable exchange rate movements helped the performance in Asia but profits grew by almost 18 per cent at constant currency.

He added, ‘All countries except Japan and China made strong progress on profitability with excellent growth coming from Thailand and Korea.

‘China did not break-even during the second half of the year which was a consequence of the slower consumer demand growth and our store roll-out being slower than planned.’

In the US, losses in the company’s Fresh & Easy division increased resulting in a loss of £186 million and a decline in trading profit of -9.7 per cent.

Clarke explained, ‘While this did not meet our guidance issued at the beginning of the year, it was a consequence of the initial costs of integrating our acquisitions of two dedicated fresh food suppliers, 2 sisters and Wild Rocket Foods.

‘Despite the higher losses in 2010/11, the overall business remains on track to break even towards the end of the 2012/13 financial year.’

Tesco confirmed payment of a final dividend of 10.09 pence per share, taking the full year dividend to 14.46 pence per share – a rise of 10.8 per cent of last year’s full year dividend.