GE said a 10% rise in sales in growth markets helped its GE Healthcare business compensate for a 2% reduction in U.S. sales and an 11% drop in European revenues in the company's third-quarter (end-September 30) operating results.
Q3 revenues fell 1% to $4.307 billion, compared with $4.332 billion in the same quarter of 2011. At the same time, operating profits for the healthcare segment rose 2% to $620 million in the quarter, compared with $608 million in last year's third quarter, driven by increases in productivity, GE said.
The healthcare division logged $4.6 billion in orders for Q3, down 1% from the same period last year. Equipment and service orders were both down 1% from last year's third quarter, amid an equipment backlog of $4.4 billion.
