PHOTO: REUTERS[TOKYO] Japan’s Mizuho Financial Group reported a 45 per cent rise in first-quarter profit on Thursday (Jul 30), a sign that loan demand has stayed strong despite volatile global energy markets and supply chain disruptions caused by war in the Middle East. Japan’s third-largest banking group also raised its annual profit forecast to 1.4 trillion yen (US$8.56 billion) – which would be a record – for the year ending March 2027. Net profit for the April-June period stood at 422.9 billion yen, versus 290.5 billion yen in the year-earlier period. The results were also lifted by higher fee revenues, for instance from investment banking, with non-interest income growing about 20 per cent over the first quarter last year, to reach 376.8 billion yen. The group also doubled the size of its share buyback programme to 200 billion yen.