I think it means, the profit (or whatever "this" refers to) is better than expected. -> After retail sales and industrial production turned out badly in December, we expected / feared a low profit. BUT it turns out, that the profit is not really much, but it is still more than what we expected.

It's not an idiom. Meredith explained it very well. It does not depend on an economic context, either.

Yes... I took off my answer because I missed the context part. Thanks Meredith :)