Australian grocer Woolworths posts 19% drop in annual profit

(Reuters) -Australia’s Woolworths Group reported a 19% drop in its full-year underlying profit on Wednesday, as lower spending by customers grappling with higher cost of living impacted its Australian Food and BIG W segments.

The country’s top supermarket chain said its underlying net profit after tax was A$1.39 billion ($883.73 million) for the year ended June 29, compared with A$1.71 billion reported a year earlier.

That was largely in line with a Visible Alpha consensus estimate of A$1.38 billion.

($1 = 1.5389 Australian dollars)

(Reporting by Himanshi Akhand and Rajasik Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)