Zara owner Inditex on Wednesday beat expectations with a 40% jump in half-year net profit despite the world's biggest fast fashion company slowing the pace of its price increases. The company posted a net profit of 2.5 billion euros ($2.7 billion) for the six months to July 31, outpacing a 2.38 billion euro market forecast according to data from LSEG. Inditex sales rose 13.5% to 16.9 billion euros and a gross margin of 58.2%. With a big share of its costs in euros, Inditex said it expects currencies to have a -3.5% impact on sales this year, worse than the -2.5% impact it expected previously. Inditex was among the first fashion retailers to raise prices in response to surging inflation early last year.

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Persons: Inditex, Bernstein, William Woods, Richard Chamberlain, Steven Meisel, Linda Evangelista Organizations: Zara, Bank of America, Royal Bank of Canada, Reuters Locations: Zara, New York, LSEG, Madrid, United States, Spain