MILAN, Oct 23 (Reuters) - UniCredit on Tuesday posted a bigger than expected 36% annual rise in third quarter profit as higher rates continued to lift income from lending, while the strain on borrowers is yet to materialise.

Core capital also strengthened above expectations in the period, rising to 17.2% of risk-weighted assets, up from 16.6% at the end of June.

Italy's only bank deemed by supervisors of global systemic relevance said net profit totalled 2.3 billion euros in the three months through September, well above an analysts' consensus gathered by UniCredit of 1.9 billion euros ($2.0 billion).

($1 = 0.9369 euros) (Reporting by Valentina Za, editing by Alvise Armellini)