Things haven’t gone too well for Axa in the first half of the year. Comparatively speaking, anyway. The French insurance giant has reported a six-month profit of about $68.5 billion. It was only a tiny improvement on last year’s performance.

Strong growth in the Asia/Pacific region’s property and casualty business helped to counter some low investment returns in the US and France. Axa reported a 1.3% rise in life insurance revenues and general insurance turnover rose 4% over last year’s result.

The company said in a statement that volatile and weak equity markets in the US and France will not affect the company’s predictions for strong long-term growth as stability returns to the market.