Australia's QBE full-year net profit drops 3.5 percent

SYDNEY, Feb 26 (Reuters) - QBE Insurance Group Ltd (QBE.AX), Australia's top insurer by premium income, said on Thursday its full-year net profit fell 3.5 percent to A$1.859 billion, hurt by a large number of claims, but still above expectations.

The average forecast of QBE's full-year profit from eight analysts was A$1.671 billion. (Reporting by Mette Fraende, Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)