Spain's Inditex posts 22 pct rise in net profit

MADRID, March 13 (Reuters) - Zara owner Inditex posted a 22 percent rise in 2012 profit to 2.4 billion euros ($3.13 billion) on Wednesday, shrugging off belt-tightening in home market Spain by tapping fashion-hungry consumers in markets like Asia.

The world's largest clothing retailer, which runs eight brands and more than 6,000 stores across 86 countries, grew sales 16 percent to 15.9 billion euros.

The results were in line with a Reuters poll of 11 analysts that had forecast net profit of 2.4 billion euros on sales of 16.0 billion euros.($1 = 0.7680 euros)