Philips cautious despite profits

Philips is cutting about 6,000 jobs

Dutch electronics giant Philips has seen its latest quarterly profits treble, but says there are few signs of recovery in most of its markets.

Cost-cutting measures helped the firm make a profit of 174m euros (£161.4m; $256m) between July and September, up from 57m euros a year earlier.

Sales fell 11% to 5.6bn euros as demand lagged for for consumer electronics and high-end health care equipment.

The firm is in the process of cutting about 6,000 jobs.

"While encouraged by the positive development in sales and profitability during the third quarter, we remain cautious about the short-term outlook in the absence of structural recovery in the majority of our end-markets," the company said.

Christmas and the Chinese New Year would be the first test of whether customer appetite for electrical goods had returned, it said.