Good morning, and thank you for joining us for Absa's 2022 interim results presentation. Firstly, I will share my thoughts on where we are as a group in terms of our strategic execution before giving my perspective on our first half performance. Thereafter, Jason will unpack our numbers, following which I will provide some context to the focus areas going forward, and then we will take your questions. Five months into my role as chief executive, I feel the group is in a very positive space. We continue to consistently deliver against our group strategy. Although we revisited our strategy last year, based on the latest market context, we re-anchored it to our 2018 strategy. We are confident that the majority of our key strategic decisions in 2018 were the right ones and remained relevant. With the strong results we are presenting today, a testament to this.
Our strategic execution journey was split into two clear phases, with the first phase specifically focused on fixing or the turnaround of the business. As I will show in the next few slides, we have delivered on this across our businesses, and we are now moving into the outperformance phase of our execution plan. We have been clear over the past few years that we need to grow our own timber within the organization and across the group. Our leadership teams have been very stable since 2018. The experience gained by this leadership group over the past three years in fixing the business as well as navigating the organization through the pandemic, gives me the comfort that the organization is in the right hands for the next phase.
As we emerge from the impact of the pandemic, it is the opportune time to refine our operating model, adopting a flatter structure, bringing management closer to customers and allowing us to accelerate strategy execution. Effective first of July, we moved from two divisions to five. Corporate and Investment Banking remains unchanged as a Pan-African business. However, we unbundled retail and business banking into four areas, everyday banking, relationship banking, product solutions, and RBB ARO that are all represented on our Group ExCo. Given the elevated importance of ESG and the clear linkage to the strategy, we have created a new ExCo role of Group Chief Strategy and Sustainability Officer. We see clear commercial benefits flowing from this change to our operating model.
Our ExCo, which has over 200 years of Absa service, an average of 16 years per member, are completely aligned behind the single purpose of delivering the strategy. We recognize that the macro backdrop has deteriorated noticeably in the past six months. Global growth expectations have reduced materially. There are considerably higher inflationary pressures across most of our markets, and policy rates are increasing far faster than what we expected. Given this, 2023 looks relatively tough from a macro perspective. However, as Jason will show, we are well-positioned for the tougher operating environment. Our balance sheet remains strong with high levels of capital and provisioning. Post our structural hedge, we also benefit from rising policy rates, and our ARO portfolio provides some diversity. Overall, as a group, we are on the front foot again. Moving on to our divisions.
RBB is in the second phase of its 2018 strategy, focusing on smart growth. The initial fixing stage laid a strong foundation. Crucially, we restructured RBB early in the process, delayering the business and bringing management closer to customers. This reduced bureaucracy while improving accountability, efficiency, and agility. A key component of the restructure was bringing the end-to-end accountability for product propositions and risk management into each business. The completion of this ecosystem was a key enablement. Numbers increased 1% year-on-year to 9.6 million, including 7% growth in retail affluent. Youth customers growing 4% since December was also pleasing. As another indicator, transactions and deposits, non-interest income grew 8%, while our deposit share remains strong at 22%. Lastly, our product per customer improved to 2.4, which indicates deepening customer relationships.
Our decision to integrate bancassurance into RBB was a good one that significantly improved our offerings to customers and our cross-selling strike rates. Lastly, RBB has made significant investments in digital, resulting in considerable progress across the estate. We were pleased to be recently awarded the best digital bank in South Africa by the Global Banking & Finance Awards. Improved stability and enriched functionality saw our digitally active customers grow 10% to 2.2 million, primarily driven by increased app usage. Digital volumes have grown by 86% compared to 2019 levels, while branch and ATM volumes have declined substantially. During the second phase of our strategy, the business is focusing on smart growth and outperforming peers. This includes acquiring customers in very specific segments.
While we have gained momentum with core middle market and affluent customers, we aim to grow our entry-level and inclusive banking base as well as youth and SMEs. Improving customer primacy is a key pillar of our strategy. While our primary customers declined slightly to 2.7 million, this was in entry-level customers where income level volatility increased materially and reduced primacy. Growing capitalized revenues, including fees and bancassurance income, is another crucial component of our strategy, which is closely linked to customer primacy. Acceleration of digitization is important, specifically with the current competitive landscape, and the business will continue to invest across products to ensure consistent customer experiences and continuous improvement in product and channel journeys. Although completed two years ago, CIB's separation from Barclays was such a pivotal event that it's still relevant to the business.
CIB replaced several key systems and its digital platforms like Absa Access are in place and competitive, although they still require continued investment. CIB has done well to replace the 15% of revenues that came from the PLC connectivity and to absorb substantial incremental run costs to replace capabilities lost. CIB has benefited from stable leadership over the past three years, specifically as it embedded the Pan-African model across its businesses. Having completed the initial balance sheet-led phase of its strategy last year, CIB is now prioritizing growth with sustainable returns with a focus on capital light non-interest revenue. Corporate Bank is building a strong track record here with double-digit non-interest income growth driven by transactions and trade finance. Like RBB, CIB aims to improve customer primacy, where it is making progress, particularly in ARO.
As part of this process, accelerating the migration and the digital activation of clients onto our strategic platforms is key. Client migration onto Absa Access is ongoing. With all ARO clients completed, the focus moving to South Africa and Pan-African clients this half. CIB continues to grow its new-to-bank customers, too. We also see scope to build out CIB ARO further over the medium term. ESG is a mega trend that provides CIB numerous growth opportunities, including in financing renewable energy, where we are the leaders in South Africa to date. Including the fifth REIPPPP round, we have been involved in deals totaling over 5 GW. In the first half, we were sustainability coordinator on South Africa's largest syndicated sustainable finance transaction to date at over ZAR 10 billion. Both divisions performed well in the first half.
RBB earnings grew 34% year-on-year off a relatively low base to ZAR 5.6 billion, which is 3% above pre-COVID levels in the first half of 2019. Importantly, its return on regulatory capital improved materially to 20%. While CIB earnings increased just 5% year-on-year to ZAR 4.3 billion, it is 46% above pre-COVID levels, a very strong recovery. Its return on regulatory capital improved further to a credible 24%. Hence, it is evident that both divisions strategies are delivering strong performance. Moving to salient features of our first half performance, we have recovered strongly from the COVID-19 lows in 2020. In fact, the key measures are significantly above pre-COVID levels of the first half of 2019. Importantly, our performance is based on strong pre-provision profit growth, which in turn reflects solid revenue growth.
Our pre-provision profit is 35% higher than the first half of 2019, a 10% compound annual growth rate. Our diluted normalized headline earnings per share have rebounded from the lows two years ago, including 27% growth year-on-year this half. This is a third higher than pre-COVID levels, also up 10% compound. Similarly, our strong ROE of 17.7% is well above pre-COVID levels and significantly above our cost of equity. Strong capital generation improved our CET1 ratio significantly to above our board target range. For shareholders, our first half dividend per share more than doubled off a relatively low base given our headline earnings per share growth and increased 50% payout ratio. Our dividend per share has grown 9% compound since the first half of 2019. We are building a consistent track record, which gives us confidence.
I will now hand over to Jason to take you through the financial performance in detail.
Well, thanks, Ari, and good morning, everybody. Throughout my presentation, I'll talk to our normalized results, which better reflect our underlying performance as it adjusts for the remaining consequences of separating from Barclays. We reconcile these with the reported IFRS results in our booklet. Starting with our income statement, headline earnings increased 27% to ZAR 11 billion, our strongest half yet. It's very clear from this graph that our earnings growth was due to significantly higher pre-provision profit, which in turn was driven by very pleasing revenue growth. Revenues grew 14% or 13% in constant currency to ZAR 47 billion. Within this, net interest income increased 12% or 11% in constant currency, reflecting further margin expansion and solid 8% growth in average interest-bearing assets.
Non-interest income grew 18% or 17% in constant currency, in part due to a substantial recovery in insurance revenues. While fee income growth was also strong. As you've come to expect of us, operating expenses remain well-controlled, growing 7% or 6% in constant currency, mostly due to increased accruals for performance costs and investments in digital. Non-performance related costs grew only 4%. These combined to produce 23% higher pre-provision profits. Excluding the rebound in insurance revenue in South Africa, our pre-provision profits still increased by 16%. Our credit impairments rose 10% to ZAR 5.2 billion, predominantly due to non-recurring model enhancement benefits that RBB South Africa realized in the comparative period. Our credit loss ratio increased to 91 basis points, slightly above the middle of our through-the-cycle target range and marginally higher than last year's 88 basis points.
The large increase in other reflects a 31% higher taxation expense with our effective tax rate increasing to 28% as well as higher minorities. In the first half of 2020, our net interest margin fell 29 basis points, predominantly due to significant policy rate cuts that our structural hedge only partly offset. After improving further in the first half of this year, it's back to pre-COVID-19 levels of 4.5%, mainly on the back of higher policy rates in South Africa and ARO. Unpacking the moving parts, our lending margin continued to improve with higher rates and reduced suspended interest in RBB South Africa. Deposit mix contributed positively with a reduction in low margin corporate South African deposits and less reliance on wholesale funding. The equity endowment added 6 basis points with South Africa's average prime rate 0.7% higher and higher equity balances.
This was partially offset by a smaller release from our structural hedge of ZAR 1.3 billion from ZAR 1.5 billion. The cash flow hedging reserve decreased to a ZAR 3.2 billion debit from a credit of ZAR 0.8 billion at 31 December last year. Within other, the largest items are investing excess liquidity in low margin instruments in ARO, partially offset by the reset impact of South Africa's rising prime rate during the current period. Turning to our balance sheet, total loans grew 12% to almost ZAR 1.2 trillion. Excluding reverse repurchase agreements, the growth was slightly higher at 14%. Group loans to customers rose 9%, while loans to banks increased 60%.
South African customer loans grew 7% to ZAR 922 billion, and Africa Regions increased 17% or 10% in constant currency to ZAR 129 billion. Division-wise, RBB customer loans rose 9% to ZAR 647 billion, while CIB grew 7% to ZAR 404 billion. Our largest book, Retail South Africa, increased 9% to ZAR 447 billion with solid growth across all segments. Relationship Banking grew 7% with continued momentum in agri and some improvement in commercial asset finance and overdrafts. RBB ARO loans grew 17% or 10% in constant currency with similar growth in personal lending, mortgages, and commercial loans.
CIB South Africa customer loans increased 5% to ZAR 341 billion with strong growth in corporate short-term financing and trade finance, partially offset by modest investment banking growth. CIB ARO's customer loans grew 18% or 9% in constant currency with strong corporate loan growth, particularly in trade finance. Our retail market share increased slightly to just over 22% with continued momentum in secured lending and improved production in unsecured. Home loans grew 9%, improving our market share to 23.7%. Average loan values and registrations both increased by 7%. Vehicle and asset finance grew 8% on 7% higher production, increasing our market share to just over 23%. Embedding our digital application systems across dealers, branch, and virtual channels resulted in industry-leading turnaround times.
Our margins are stable, with some pressure emerging on new business pricing due to increased competition. Credit cards grew 10%, reflecting 7% higher sales together with increased limits and utilizations with turnover volume up 13%. Personal loans increased 8% with production up 36% and back to 2019 pre-COVID-19 levels. The increase reflects significant improvement in digital sales on our mobile banking app and marketing campaigns. New business pricing improved. Personal loans remain a small portion of our retail lending, and our market share is very low at just 10%. Total customer deposits grew 7% or 5% in constant currency to ZAR 1.1 trillion. South African customer deposits increased 5% to ZAR 898 billion.
Within this, retail rose 7% to ZAR 281 billion to maintain its market share of 22%. Transactional deposits grew 5%, while investment deposits rose 8%, which benefited from the migration of the Absa Money Market Fund. Although from July, this is now in the base. Relationship banking increased 11%, a very good performance. Transactional deposits increased 10% due to customers building up liquidity, although this is tapering off as businesses start to invest. Investment deposits grew 12%, supported by migrating the Money Market Fund. Deposits are also a priority for CIB South Africa and rose 1% to ZAR 336 billion. Corporate South Africa grew 5% despite reduced national government balances. It also benefited from the migration of the Money Market Fund.
Investment Bank South Africa decreased 15% given 23% lower fixed deposits and repurchase agreements down 18%. Africa Regions' deposits grew 16% to ZAR 188 billion, in part due to the weaker spot rand as it increased 7% in constant currency. RBB ARO deposits increased 16% or 7% in constant currency with growth in both check and investment products. CIB ARO deposits grew 17% or 7% in constant currency with growth in call, check, fixed and foreign currency deposits. Growing core deposits remains a priority and is a good indicator of the health of our franchise. Our total deposits have grown 10% compound since the pre-COVID period. I'm pleased that customer deposits increased to 78% of our total funding, reducing the proportion of bank deposits and debt securities.
The benefit of lower reliance on wholesale funding is very evident in our net interest margin. Lastly, our Liquidity Coverage Ratio of 121% and Net Stable Funding Ratio of 113% are both very strong and comfortably above regulatory requirements. Growing non-interest income is a key priority for us with improving underlying trends. Total non-interest income grew 18% or 17% in constant currency and accounted for 39% of our revenues. There were three drivers for this growth. Firstly, other non-interest income rebounded strongly after dropping significantly last year. Within this, South African insurance increased by ZAR 1.3 billion from last year when its claims and provisions were elevated due to the third and fourth waves of COVID-19 in South Africa. Excluding this rebound, group non-interest income grew nicely by 10%.
Second, the largest component, net fee and commission income, grew 7%, with transactional income up 8% and merchant income increasing 11%. It was pleasing to see RBB's growth improve to 8% while CIB remained robust at 10%. Thirdly, net trading, excluding hedging effectiveness, grew 12%, which is higher than the 1% increase in global markets income, which was off a high base. At a divisional level, RBB's non-interest income grew 22% or 10% excluding the rebound in South African insurance revenues. This reflected growth in customers and normalizing economic activity, with low double-digit growth in digital and card turnover. The migration to digital channels continues to dampen non-interest income, with ATM and branch volumes down 6%. CIB's non-interest revenue grew 6%, and the corporate bank increased 12% due to transaction growth and trade finance.
While investment bank growth was lower at 4% given a high base in global markets revenues in the corresponding half. Moving to costs, our operating expenses increased 7% or 6% in constant currency. Staff costs rose 4%, accounting for 55% of total operating expenses. Salaries and other staff costs were flat, largely due to lower headcount and reduced restructuring costs offsetting salary inflation. Bonuses grew 47% given improved performance and a higher proportionate first half accrual, which added 2% to total group costs. Non-staff costs grew 10% or 9% in constant currency. Calling out areas of higher growth, IT costs increased 12% due to continued investment in digital platforms requiring additional software, cyber security, and licensing spend. Total IT spend, including staff, amortization, and depreciation, grew 11% to almost ZAR 6 billion or 25% of group expenses.
Professional fees rose 35%, mainly from higher spend on strategic initiatives. Marketing costs grew 48% due to increased campaign spend, mostly in RBB. Amortization of intangible assets increased 15% given investment in new digital data and automation capabilities. Costs also reduced in several areas. Depreciation decreased by 8%, primarily due to continued optimization of property and physical IT infrastructure. Property costs declined 1%, reflecting ongoing property optimization. Cash transportation costs fell 5% given migration to digital banking and benefits from increased cash recycling. I'm very pleased that our cost income ratio has improved to 51%. Turning to credit impairments, our charge grew 10% to ZAR 5.2 billion, increasing our credit loss ratio slightly to 91 basis points from 88. The credit loss ratio is just above the midpoint of our through the cycle range of 75- 100 basis points.
In the first half of 2021 base, model enhancements and a change in the definition of default to align with peers reduced RBB South Africa credit impairments by ZAR 1.3 billion. During the first half of 2022, we recognized a net release of ZAR 1.1 billion, mainly attributable to the consumption of the macro overlay as more of the anticipated risks are captured via incurred losses or recalibrated IFRS 9 models that actually reflect the COVID-19 loss experience. RBB credit impairments grew 16%, resulting in a 1.44% credit loss ratio from 1.33%. Everyday banking credit impairments, which includes personal loans, cards, and overdrafts, grew 6% in line with book growth given enhanced digital collection capabilities and concerted efforts to manage NPLs. Vehicle and asset finance rose 56%, producing a 2.2% credit loss ratio.
This increase reflects higher delinquencies, largely due to operational issues we experienced post the DebiCheck implementation, an aging legal book, and an increased number of customers in debt review. Given large model enhancement benefits in the base, home loans swung from a ZAR 290 million reversal to a ZAR 272 million charge. Although its 0.19% credit loss ratio remains low. Relationship Banking's charge fell 68%, improving its credit loss ratio materially due to an improved book construct. CIB credit impairments decreased 42%, resulting in a credit loss ratio of 0.13% from 0.24%. The decline reflects reduced single name charges in South Africa and a net impairment release on the performing book due to an improved portfolio construct.
It's pleasing that group non-performing loans or Stage 3 loans declined further to 5.3% from 5.6%. The improvement was due to loan growth in the denominator and concerted efforts to manage our NPLs in our South African unsecured lending portfolios. NPLs reduced across home loans, Everyday Banking, and Relationship Banking. While vehicle and asset finance increased due to customers in debt review and some pressure on the legal book. Africa Regions NPLs rose in business banking and CIB given pressure on the tourism sector. Our Stage 3 coverage remains appropriately positioned, improving slightly year to date to over 45%. Within this, RBB's coverage was stable, with increased cover in home loans due to an aging legal book. CIB's coverage increased due to additional Stage 3 impairments on single names.
Moving to divisional performances, RBB earnings grew 34% to ZAR 5.6 billion, driven by 24% higher pre-provision profit, with 14% revenue growth well ahead of 7% higher costs. Excluding the rebound in Insurance South Africa, RBB earnings still grew 11%. RBB contributed 57% of group earnings excluding Head Office Treasury and other operations. CIB's earnings rose 5% to ZAR 4.3 billion after a very strong first half last year, due to a combination of 42% lower credit impairments and 6% pre-provision profit growth. Revenue growth of 7% was slightly below 8% cost growth, producing a very good 46% cost-to-income ratio.
Head Office Treasury and other earnings increased considerably to ZAR 1.1 billion, given significantly higher net interest income as South African Group Treasury had increased endowment revenue, reset benefits from rising policy rates, and strong investment returns. Focusing on RBB, the franchises all grew pre-provision profits, particularly Insurance South Africa off a very low base and RBB ARO. Unpacking the franchises, home loans earnings fell 23% because credit impairments normalized from a net release due to substantial model enhancement benefits in the prior. Its pre-provision profit growth of 6% was solid, largely driven by loan growth. Similarly, vehicle and asset finance earnings decreased 90% due to 56% higher credit impairments that I covered earlier. However, net interest income rose 13% on strong loan growth and improved margins to produce 11% higher pre-provision profits.
Everyday Banking earnings rose 4% with 8% higher pre-provision profits, partially offset by 6% growth in credit impairments. Of its businesses, transactional and deposits earnings grew 4% and personal loans improved, while card reduced 8% due to higher credit impairments as large model enhancement benefits did not recur. Insurance South Africa's headline earnings rebounded to ZAR 640 million from a ZAR 300 million loss. As South African life insurance revenues and earnings recovered due to lower COVID related mortality claims and provisions, and pleasing underlying net premium income growth. Short-term insurance headline earnings dropped 75% to ZAR 40 million, reflecting significantly higher flood claims and surge claims related to electricity load shedding. Relationship Banking earnings grew strongly up 34% due to the combination of 7% pre-provision profit growth and 68% lower credit impairments.
Lastly, RBB ARO headline earnings increased significantly due to 42% higher pre-provision profits on the back of strong 18% revenue growth. This is an encouraging performance from that franchise as we seek to reposition its growth, trajectory, and returns. Turning to CIB, this slide breaks it out by business and geography, although we run it on a Pan-African basis. Starting with corporates, which performed very well, earnings rose 22%, due to 29% pre-provision profit growth that outweighed significantly higher credit impairments off a very low base. Revenues grew 13% with pleasing growth in transactional revenues and improved customer primacy. The investment bank earnings declined 1% as pre-provision profit decreased 2% and as tax expense increased. Revenue was resilient, increasing 4% off a demanding base, particularly in global markets, and credit impairments reduced materially.
Using a geographic lens, CIB South Africa's earnings increased 7%, given 71% lower credit impairments and 2% higher pre-provision profits. Revenues grew 4% with non-interest income up 6%. CIB South Africa constituted over two-thirds of CIB's earnings. Lastly, CIB ARO's earnings rose 2%, with 15% higher pre-provision profits as 14% higher revenues exceeded 12% cost growth. Impairments increased as we expected, following on from a net credit in the base. The average value of the rand was slightly weaker against the basket of ARO currencies during the period, adding 2% to Africa regions revenue and earnings. Africa regions earnings grew 32% or 30% in constant currency, driven by strong 27% growth in pre-provision profits. Its earnings are now above pre-COVID levels.
Revenue growth of 17% exceeded 11% cost growth, improving its cost-to-income ratio to just below 60%. Credit impairments increased 47%, largely in CIB ARO from a very low base, as discussed previously. Africa Regions is a meaningful contributor to the group, accounting for a sixth of earnings, almost a quarter of revenues. We continue to see significant potential to grow our existing portfolio and further enhance its returns over the medium term. We remain very well capitalized. Our CET1 ratio increased further to 13.1% from 12.4%, which is better than we expected and reflects strong capital generation combined with moderate growth in risk-weighted assets. This is above the top end of our board target range of 11%-12.5% and comfortably exceeds regulatory requirements.
Group risk-weighted assets increased 6% to ZAR 949 billion, with the largest component, credit risk, at 5%. We remain strongly capital generative, with profits adding 2% to the CET1 ratio over the year, partially offset by paying 70 basis points worth of dividends. The strong CET1 ratio allowed us to increase our dividend payout ratio to 50% from 30%, resulting in a 110% higher ordinary dividend of ZAR 6.50 per share, our highest on record. Before getting into our guidance, I'll cover the macro prospects as we see them today. The outlook for the global economy is particularly uncertain. Geopolitical events in Eastern Europe are acute, and sharp moves in commodity prices and potential supply interruptions are difficult to predict.
Moreover, dramatic increases in inflation are being felt across most economies, triggering in many the most rapid monetary policy tightening in decades. Economic growth is widely expected to fall, although the extent remains unclear. Against this highly uncertain global backdrop, we expect South Africa's economy to grow 2.3% in 2022 as a better-than-expected first quarter is tempered by the impacts of second quarter flooding in KZN, ongoing electricity supply shortages, and an increase in strike action in some sectors. Eskom's operational challenges remain a key downside risk to economic growth and investor sentiment. Moving to our ARO presence countries, we forecast 4.5% GDP weighted growth. However, the risks are also tilted to the downside, given the more depressed global environment, rising domestic inflation and tighter monetary policy in most ARO countries.
Ghana's near-term outlook is clouded by its fiscal challenges and elevated inflation. Although the prospect of an IMF-led intervention is encouraging, we generally expect East African countries, along with Botswana and Mozambique, to record better growth this year. These graphs show the significant increase in our forecast for South African policy rates and inflation compared to our expectations in February, when there was little expectation of a big push in inflation globally. Back then, most expected COVID era supply chain challenges to ease and inflation to moderate. However, the Russia-Ukraine conflict and a reassessment of whether COVID era inflationary pressure would be short-lived increased inflation forecasts everywhere, and led by the Fed, so too have interest rate expectations. In February, we expected a gradual rise in the South African prime rate, with total increases of 75 basis points this year and next, peaking at 10% in 2024.
Now, however, we expect hikes totaling 325 basis points this year to 10.5%, before peaking at 11% early next year, and followed by modest reductions, bringing the terminal rate to similar levels. As we evaluate the interest rate environment, it's important to note how low interest rates went during the COVID-19 crisis. From many perspectives, the latest outlook represents a normalization broadly to pre-COVID-19 expectations, albeit at a steeper pace. Headline consumer price inflation breached the SARB 6% upper target in May, and we expect inflation to remain elevated till mid-2023. Households face steep increases in fuel, food, and other important items. Significantly higher rates and inflation will dampen loan growth and increase credit impairments. We are well positioned for a tougher macro backdrop. In particular, I'd like to reiterate our strong capital levels.
Our group total capital adequacy ratio of 17% is comfortably above our targets of over 14.5%. Moreover, we remain very capital generative, and our CET1 ratio of 13.1% is above the top end of our board target range and well above pre-COVID-19 levels. Importantly, we are also appropriately provisioned, having built considerable coverage during 2020. While our total coverage has reduced slightly, it remains very strong at 4%, again, well above pre-COVID-19 levels. Our strategies of growing customer deposits have worked out well, and thus we have very strong levels of liquidity, also in hard currency, with less reliance on wholesale funding.
Based on these assumptions, and excluding further major unforeseen political, macroeconomic, or regulatory developments, our guidance for the 2022 year is as follows. We expect low double-digit revenue growth with non-interest income growth slightly higher than net interest income. We see high single-digit growth in customer loans, while customer deposits will likely grow by low- to mid-single digits. Our net interest margin benefits from rising rates with a ZAR 500 million uplift on an annualized basis for a 1% rise in policy rates post the structural hedge, as discussed earlier. We expect low- to mid-single-digit operating expense growth, resulting in positive operating jaws and growth in pre-provision profits in the teens. Our 2022 cost-to-income ratio is expected to improve from 2021, but increase slightly from the first half.
Given rising policy rates and inflationary pressures, our credit loss ratio is likely to increase to the upper half of our through the cycle target range of 75-100 basis points, broadly in line with the first half charge. Consequently, we expect our ROE to improve to around 17%. Lastly, our group CET1 ratio is expected to remain very strong. We aim to increase our dividend payout ratio to at least 50% for 2022. I'll finish with our medium-term guidance. As you saw earlier, we expect modest GDP growth in South Africa with higher interest rates into 2024. We continue to see stronger economic growth from our ARO portfolio. To the extent that this macro scenario materializes over the medium term, we aim to achieve a low 50s cost-to-income ratio in 2024 and to sustainably maintain our ROE above 17%.
Thanks very much for your attention. I'll hand you back to Ari now.
Thank you, Jason. In concluding, I would like to make the following remarks. I am confident that our strategy is delivering results. We have the right leadership in place, and we have strong momentum behind us. We are conscious that the operating environment is uncertain, but we are well positioned across the balance sheet to withstand it. Lastly, it would be remiss of me not to express my heartfelt gratitude to our 35,000 colleagues, without whom this performance would not have been possible. We will now take your questions on Slido.
Okay, super. Thanks, Ari. We've opened up Slido here, and the questions are very much technical in nature. Ari, I'm gonna deal with these. I'll read the question and then I'll provide a response for each one. The first one is from Konstantin Rozantsev from J.P. Morgan. Could you please elaborate how you see higher interest rates and higher inflation impacting the bank's loan quality in coming periods? Konstantin, I think what you saw us say was that we feel confident with the resilience of our balance sheet and the levels of coverage that we hold. Our loan loss ratio guidance, you know, through the cycle, 75-100 basis points. We're saying in the upper half of that is where we see it for the full year.
Look, of course, you know, with rising interest rates and a steeper curve than what we would have predicted in March, proactive risk management efforts are well underway across our organization. We've got fair conviction that, combined with the existing coverage and actions we'll take, also to support our customers in this rising rate cycle, that we'll come through resiliently. Once again, I think in terms of interest rates, where we see it actually, you know, we've got a steep curve now, but then a terminal rate that's actually not that different to pre-COVID sort of expectations. Let's not forget how much relief customers had with very low rates for a long time. That's that one. Looking at Jonathan du Toit from OysterCatcher Investments.
He says, "Congratulations on a great set of results." Thanks, Jonathan. Do you believe the current cost-to-income ratio is sustainable? Where would you like the ratio to trend over the next four years? Thanks, Jonathan. Yes, we've. I think we've done well as Absa to get our cost-to-income ratio down to attractive levels. You'll recall back in 2018, with separation underway and all sorts of other headwinds, our cost-to-income ratio was much higher than this, you know, 58%, 59%. To get that down to where it is today is, I think, you know, there's momentum behind that story. I'd also just say that, we were explicit today around our medium-term guidance that we'd expect to sustainably get low 50s cost-to-income ratios. Stefan Potgieter from UBS. Congratulations with a strong set of numbers. Thanks, Stefan.
Could you please unpack the relatively large negative movements in reserves impacting NAV progression? Thanks, Stefan. Of course, you know, you know the moving parts there around, you start off with the opening balance, and then you've got profits accrued, which were quite strong. I think there's a lot of cash generative activities underway. I think then you pay the dividend. Of course, the other moves, the biggest one is the cash flow hedging reserve that relates to our structural interest rate program. And that moved from a ZAR 800 million credit to a ZAR 3 billion or ZAR 3.2 billion rand debit. That's the other move there in NAV.
Stephan, as you remember, the design of that structural hedging accounting solution is to park the cash flow hedge reserve in the balance sheet, and then you have the annuity type flow out of the program to offset prevailing rates at the time. Thanks. Next one is Charles Russell, SBG Securities. Morning, Arrie, Jason. Can you please explain the lower contribution from the structural hedge despite the gap between five-year swap and three-month JIBAR being particularly favorable for H1 2022 in recent pandemic history? Yeah. Thanks, Charles. That's great. I think the key piece of guidance that we gave there is that we expect for every 100 basis points of rate moves, ZAR 500 million of interest margin or net interest income coming through, and that's post the structural hedge impact.
That'll give you a very good idea. Of course, that guidance is on an annual basis. You'll just have to look and see when you expect the rates to change. Yeah. The you know we buy five- and six-year swaps on a continuous basis in the market. The release from the structural hedge, I think in the prior half, was about ZAR 1.5 billion or thereabout. In this half, it was about ZAR 1.3 billion. You can kind of see the annuity nature of that. And then, you know, Charles, what we do, of course, is we actively are in the interest rates market. At periods like this when we see five-year swap and three-month JIBAR being where they are.
At the moment, our judgment is that the forward market is over-predicting the rate-rising cycle, and therefore, we're buying into that for the benefit of the five-year structural rate in our program. Of course, you know, it's a five-year program. You get temporary, let's call it, spot aberrations in particular periods where you're either replacing or not. It's once again a more an annuity type program. That ZAR 500 million is an important part of how to look at it. Okay. There's one more. It's from an anonymous. Please, can you provide an update regarding the overhang and dilution risks respectively of the Barclays share placement and proposed BEE transaction? I imagine the Barclays share placement is perceived as an overhang, so I'll attach it to that. What...
Clearly, you know, that's a question for Barclays. They've got about 7.5% ownership left in us. You should approach Barclays with respect to any questions you've got on their approach to what they're going to do with that investment. On the BEE, yes, we put a SENS out, sort of September last year, I think, saying that we expect to execute a BEE transaction up to 8% of the equity of the company, and that we'll be making further announcements in due course. That guidance remains appropriate. We haven't given any further information on that. Okay, another question from Konstantin Rozantsev again, from J.P. Morgan. Hello. The bank has a USD Tier 2 sub Eurobond callable in April 2023. Should we expect this bond to be called?
Is the bank looking to issue a replacement sub Eurobond at some point soon? Thank you. Thanks, Konstantin. Just stepping back, our common equity Tier 1 ratio is sitting at 13.1, well above our core target range of 11-12.5. Our total capital is also sitting round about 17%. Within that, I think we've done a pretty good job over the last few years to diversify and optimize the sources of capital, including that Eurobond that you mentioned and some others. Of course, we want to run the organization on an efficient capital basis with resilience in these uncertain times. I'm not gonna give specific advice with respect to how we're gonna treat that bond at the time. I think calling it is clearly on the table as an option.
I think it'll also have to do with commercial factors on our side to see what's available to replace it. The dollar feature of it is useful. It's not an overriding feature for us. We've run a long dollar position on our funding book for some time. You know, to the extent at the moment, we've got a long dollar position of over $1 billion, you know? We feel we've got lots of capital. We wanna be efficient as well. We feel that the dollar aspects are well taken care of. That'll, you know, that's probably as much as I'm gonna say on that question for now. James Dark. Good results. Congratulations. How should we think about the normalization in the life claims-related provisions in your insurance business for the rest of the year?
Is this now all done in 1H 2022, or can we see further benefits unwind into 2H 2022? Thanks, James. Look, yeah, clearly, we raised significant actuarial liabilities for the risks, the mortality risks of COVID, and also the disability risks of COVID. The big build of those provisions was in the prior years. As we see the virus at the moment and its impact on mortality, we feel we've got, you know, sufficient actuarial reserves is probably the right way to describe it. So, you know, all things being equal, and on the assumption that the COVID virus has a far less impact on society going forward, I feel comfortable that, you know, that we're well provided. There's no reason for further build in that provision.
We've seen very few claims coming through lately. Once again, some reliance on whatever happens with the virus, but the way we see it, we feel absolutely well provided. Arrie. Thanks, colleagues. That's all the questions. I'm gonna hand back to Arrie to greet everybody, but appreciate all those technical questions. Thanks, guys.
Yeah, Jason, thank you very much for covering those questions. Also, a big thank you again for everybody that joined us this morning and also for your comments on our results. It's certainly a set of results that the management team is very proud of. Thank you again for joining us, and we look forward to our engagements over the next couple of days.