Apple has so far been able to defy consumer restraint, primarily thanks to the strength of the iPhone. In the past quarter, the group increased sales by eight percent year-on-year to $90.1 billion (90.4 billion euros).

The bottom line is that profits improved from $20.55 to $20.72 billion, as Apple announced after the US stock market closed on Thursday.

The iPhone was a key driver of the business with sales increasing from $38.9 billion to $42.6 billion. As usual, Apple launched the new iPhone generation in September - but this time a week earlier than 2021.

The Mac computer business grew from around $9.2 billion to $11.5 billion amid a rapid contraction in the PC market. With the iPad, however, revenues in the fourth business quarter, which ended in September, fell from $8.25 to just under $7.2 billion.

In Europe, where Apple recently raised the prices for new iPhone models, in some cases significantly in view of the weak euro, sales grew in the past quarter from $20.8 to $22.8 billion.

Apple shares were slightly down in after-hours trading after the price initially dropped by up to five percent in an initial reaction to the numbers.