Swedish payments firm Klarna Bank reported on Tuesday a fourth-quarter operating loss that was smaller than a year earlier and said it was on a solid path towards profitability.

The Swedish “buy-now, pay-later” company said in a statement the quarterly operating loss shrank 43 per cent from a year ago to 2.0 billion Swedish crowns (€180.6 million).

The fintech, which during the pandemic grew fast, in the full year saw its business sentiment deteriorating amid falling consumer confidence due to soaring cost inflation and the war in Ukraine.

In the full year, its operating loss grew by 59 per cent from 2021, to 10.5 billion crowns.

"The company’s current goal is to return to profitability by the summer of 2023, while also optimising for continuous growth this year and beyond," it said in its annual report on Tuesday.

Klarna said that in December 2022 the United States became its largest market by revenue.

“The US and the UK is growing at a very high pace, pushing up the average growth number for the whole company,” chief executive Sebastian Siemiatkowski told Reuters. - Reuters

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